Jumping at Shadows
by DragonDancer5150
Summary: In the wake of global, “ghostly” events, Danny & Tucker meet Sam’s penpal & her friends – a group with as many secrets as Danny’s gang. And a new partnership of evil forms to unlock the mysterious power of the “Realm of Nightmares.”
1. Prologue

Author's Note: I was introduced to "Danny Phantom" several months ago by my good friend and beta, "MyAibou" – partly to help her in beta'ing _her_ stories (which I was GLAD to do!) and partly 'cuz I'd been interested for some time and _jumped_ on the chance to actually, finally give DP a try (she sent me DVDs of downloads she'd burned for me – YATTA). And soon after watching episodes, I started to wonder what a meeting between Danny and Yami would be like . . . cuz, you know, _everything_ comes back to "Yu-Gi-Oh!" ((rolls eyes)) LOL At least for me. ((grins)) But, anyway, in the wake of a slew of emails back and forth with MyAibou on the subject, this story began to develop – and I have her to thank both for beta'ing for me and for poking at me in the first place and keeping _me_ interested in the idea enough – and assuring me it was turning out to be a viable enough concept – to continue developing and eventually start writing this. So . . . THANKS MYAIBOU! ((huggles!))

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Prologue

"Hey, Maddie, could you c'mere a sec'?"

Jack stood at the bottom of the stairs with a box in his hands, one that had just arrived earlier today. He had managed to sneak it past his lady love and into the Fenton Laboratory while she had been busy fixing dinner, and now he could not wait to present it to her.

Maddie's voice floated down from the living room. "Can it wait? 'CSI: Paranormal' is about to come on!"

"Well, hit the Fenton TV-corder and record it. Trust me – this is worth it!"

He could almost hear her huff even down in the basement before she descended the stairs, eyeing the box. "Jack, what's this?"

Jack's grin widened as he handed it to her. "Remember that geological element you, me, and Vladdy discovered back in college? That little chip of rock everyone kept wanting to tell us was just irradiated emerald?"

"Yes," she murmured slowly, eyeing the package.

"Well, guess what, baby? I've been doing some research online and finally came in contact with a company called Paradias out in San Francisco. One of its subsidiaries – ah . . . hm . . . can't . . . seem to recall the name of it off the top of my head." He shrugged. "Anyway, they specialize in rare metals and gems . . . "

Even with the goggles in place over her eyes, Jack could read her expression, her mouth falling open. "Y-you're kidding! Jack . . . !" She pulled her Fenton Pocket Knife from a case on her utility belt and cut the package open. Jack watched her dig into tightly-packed shredded paper until her fingers found a plastic zip-top bag with a handful of glowing green stones like rough crystal, each the length of her thumb. "Ectoranium! Oh, Jack!" She threw her arms around her husband. "These are incredible! And they must have cost a fortune!" She stepped back, head tilting at that thought. "How much _did_ you pay for these?"

Jack smirked. "Would you believe next-to-nothing? Well, okay, more than that, but they were _cheap_ compared to what they're worth. Or, well, maybe just to ghost hunters like us, but . . . Heh, I'll bet that Amelda guy I bought them from had no idea what he had on his hands, just like those jokers in college didn't. Huh, and what kind of name _is_ 'Amelda,' anyway?"

Maddie shook her head as she stepped over to a table, laying out the pieces of ectoranium. "Never mind that, Jack. The important thing is that we have them now and we know _exactly_ what they're worth."

Jack nodded, holding up a finger and reciting like he did back in college. "The negative effects of the energy put out by ectoranium – or 'orichalcum' as some have identified it in antiquity – can only be felt by ghosts! And that energy can be harnessed for all manner of anti-ghost weapons and equipment."

Maddie clapped her hands together. "Oh, Jack! You remembered 'antiquity'! I'm so proud of you!"

Jack beamed, hands on his hips. "Sure did, baby!" He frowned suddenly. "And I _should_ have. I practiced it over and over enough . . . "

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Danny sat at his desk in his room, shoving back into his chair in frustration. _Why do teachers _insist_ on assigning homework over the summer break?_ he grumbled mentally as he scrubbed both hands over his face. _Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of _having_ a break from school? And this after wasting two months of it at that stupid Camp Skull-and-Crossbones!_

He sighed, then shivered and stood to reach for his bedroom window, absently intent on closing the pane . . . only it was already shut. _And, again . . . it's summer. So why am I – ?_ Danny turned back toward the interior of his room and saw his breath. _Okay, that clenches it. Ghost Sense. So . . . where are you?_ He found his attention drawn to his dresser. Frowning, he crossed the room and started pulling drawers open.

"Beware!"

"AHH!" Danny should have expected it – and he knew it – but he cried out in shock all the same, throwing himself back from the pudgy form of luminous blue that popped up in front of him without warning. He landed on his backside, then glared up at the intruder, cutting off the rest of the usual introduction. "Yeah, yeah, I know! You're the Box Ghost . . . and, in case you hadn't noticed, that's not exactly a box. That's my underwear drawer!" Pulling himself to his feet, he added with a huff, "And what are you doing in my room?"

The Box Ghost rocked back in mid-air, folding his arms with a huff of his own. "For your information, that is _not_ what I was going to say!"

Danny cocked an eye at him. "No? Huh. Don't tell me. You're now the Box_er_ Ghost." He snatched a pair of boxers from the Box Ghost's head and stuffed them back in his drawer. This would not be the first time the second-rate spook had spontaneously decided to change his name based on his present location . . . or fetish. Danny shuddered and decided to pretend he had not just had that thought.

The thought was forgotten entirely when Danny stopped to look at the Box Ghost again. The specter hovered close to the floor, rather than up by the ceiling as was his norm, and was looking around and wringing his hands. The Box Ghost noted Danny's attention and threw his arms up with another dramatic shout of "Beware!"

"Argh!" Danny stumbled back again, pressing the heel of a hand to his ear. "Will you stop that! What are you all 'beware' about _this_ time?" Danny tossed his own hands up in imitation, wiggling his fingers.

For a moment, the Box Ghost just gaped at him and, when he spoke, his voice had dropped to a more normal tone, which for him constituted a hushed whisper. "You do not sense it?"

Danny frowned. The Box Ghost looked genuinely afraid. Danny had not seen the specter so scared since Lord Pariah Dark tried to take over the Ghost Zone. "No. What's spooked the spook, huh?"

The Box Ghost made a face at the bad pun but did not to rise to the jab. "There is a dark and ancient magic in the air. Someone is casting a terrible summons that is drawing on the Realm of Nightmares itself!"

Just then, Jazz knocked on the door, letting herself in without waiting for permission. "Danny, are you talking to someone? Who's in – ? Box Ghost? What are _you_ doing here?"

Danny crossed his arms and glared at the specter. "We were just getting to that part. What do you mean, 'the Realm of Nightmares'?"

The Box Ghost didn't get a chance to answer, interrupted by a sharp gasp from Jazz, who was staring past Danny. Danny turned over his shoulder, then bolted to the windowsill, Jazz and the Box Ghost on his heels. All three gaped at the sight of countless bolts of glowing green energy streaking across the sky from the east. Several streams separated from the rest, arcing downward to head for their home, slamming through the living room wall at a trajectory that would put them straight into the basement.

Jazz looked at Danny in horror. "Danny, the lab! Mom and Dad are down there! Come on!" She turned and darted from the room.

Danny caught the Box Ghost by the collar to keep him from hiding in the dresser again and dragged the specter with him as he bolted after his sister. The two teens hit the top of the stairs just in time to hear laser fire and their parents' cries of shock and anger down in the basement. Jazz pulled up short in the kitchen, throwing a protective arm across her little brother as their father backed himself and his wife up the basement stairs. Danny's breath hitched at the feral moans he could hear coming from below. His heart stopped altogether at the sight of the monster making that sound as it lumbered up the stairwell. It looked like an ogre of some kind, with sickly purple-grey flesh under massive plate armor. Sharp teeth – and plenty of them! – glowing red eyes, and an arcane symbol, a five-point star within a double-circle, glowing on the forehead of the helm completed the look. Danny thought he had seen something like it in the orc armies from the _Lord of the Rings_ movies, and a part of his mind marked as a footnote that the symbol on the monster's forehead glowed the same ectoplasmic green as those streaks of power. The Box Ghost had fled the first chance he got, and now Danny wondered that the proximity of this beast did not set off his Ghost Sense again.

_Not a ghost_.

Danny shook his head at the thought. What else could it be? Still, something about the monster's very presence stood the hairs of Danny's neck and arms up on end, filling him with a dread he couldn't shake.

At the sight of the monster, Jazz screamed. "W-what is that?"

"Did it come out of the Ghost Portal?" Danny added.

Jack had set himself between the basement door and his family, Fenton Bazooka in hand, while Maddie backed her children away. "Jack, the Bazooka's _not working!_" She spared a glance over her shoulder and shook her head. "No, they came out of some kind of ectoplasmic seals that spread from ectoranium crystals after a bunch of weird energy bolts hit them!"

" 'They'?" Jazz gasped. "There's _more_ of them?"

In spite of himself, Danny was more worried in that moment about the presence of the dangerous-to-ghosts crystals. He couldn't help but remember what his parents had always told him and Jazz about the rare stone. "Ah, w-when did you guys get a hold of ectoranium!"

Jazz frowned, then turned on what Danny always thought of as her melodramatic-overprotective-sister act. It was the one she used to try to cover for Danny to get him out of their parents' sight so he could go ghost, and he had to wonder that the poor acting didn't catch their attention as such. "Oh, no! I have to protect my baby brother! Come, so I can hide you from the terrible monsters!"

Danny managed not to roll his eyes – he hated it when she called him her "baby" brother, considering there were barely two years in age between them – but did not resist when she started pushing him back towards the staircase to the upper story. Their mother, however, caught them both by the arms.

"Danny, here." She fastened a metal belt around his hips, and he swallowed a groan. It was a Specter Deflector. At least he had managed to learn to contain his ghost half enough that the damnable thing no longer zapped him senseless even when he was in human form. Then, Maddie pressed a Jack-o-Nine-Tails into Jazz's hands. "Take care of your brother, sweetie." More of the armored ogres had pressed their way up the staircase, forcing Jack to retreat toward the living room, and she darted back to her husband's side, wrist pistols and goggle beams blazing.

Jazz retreated around a corner with Danny in tow, and he pulled free from her as soon as they were out of sight. "Here," he grunted, pulling off the Specter Deflector and slapping it into his sister's free hand. "Stupid thing does me more harm than good." He frowned and shook his head as she shrugged and started to put it on. "Don't know that it'll do you any good, either, Jazz. I don't think those things are ghosts."

"What? Well, then, what are they?"

"Beats me! But think about it – they came out of ectoranium crystals!"

Jazz's eyes went wide. "Ghosts can't touch ectoranium . . . "

"Exactly. They didn't set off my Ghost Sense, either."

Danny started to say more, but then Jazz yelped again and grabbed him, spinning to press him into protection behind her in a corner, staring in horror out a window as what could only be described as a skull-faced demon paused to bend down and peer in before continuing. The monster bore the same ectoplasmic glyph on its forehead. As it passed back out of view, Danny spotted a gigantic metal jar with a face in the open mouth next to a two-headed dinosaur clawing at a building across from them. And from the sounds of the screams that were beginning to fill the streets, there were even more monsters beyond.

Danny growled and pushed his sister back from him. "That does it! I'm GOING GHOST!" He punched both fists up into the air as a shockingly _cold_ sensation spread from the pit of his stomach outward, the energy forming a visible ring of blue-white light like a hoola-hoop around his waist, the power that transformed him from his human form to his ghost form.

Jazz stepped further back as the ring separated into two, traveling up and down Danny's body to disappear above his hands and into the floor. She dropped the belt and baton and threw an arm around her brother's shoulders. "Danny, take me upstairs. I've got a Fenton Ghost Peeler in my bedroom."

Danny didn't know if that weapon would work any better against non-ectoplasmic beings than the Jack-o-Nine-Tails, but it was worth a shot. If nothing else, the armor it formed around the user would protect his sister – he hoped. He nodded, turned them both intangible, and flew them up through the ceiling. They stopped in Jazz's room, then continued up through the roof, hovering under the Ops Center perched on top of the building. The sight that met their eyes was a chilling one: monsters of literally every description imaginable filled the streets – dragons, demons, mechanical oddities, humanoid beast-warriors, giant insects, even a three-dimensional cartoon mermaid in a giant clamshell down the street in front of Old Man Nedry's place. The one thing that seemed to connect them all was the same green seal on their foreheads, or what passed for heads in many cases. In the distance, he caught a flash of color and movement between two buildings and wondered if Valerie was out doing her ghost-hunting . . . and if she was having any luck against these monsters.

"Not good," Jazz breathed as she looked around, her hold on her brother tightening out of reflex. "These are just like the ones that appeared a few days ago!"

Monsters – apparently just like these, from what he had later seen on newscasts – had shown up in the wee hours before dawn, not only all over Amity Park, but all over the world. Some guy from Japan had put on a press conference about it later that morning but, by then, the monsters had disappeared without a trace. Danny had been on an overnight fishing trip on Lake Michigan with Tucker's family and so had not been present for the invasion.

Before Danny could respond, movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, something on the near sidewalk that was much smaller than the surrounding monsters. "Look! There's Sam!" Danny dropped to the ground as his friend bolted up the street to meet them.

"Danny, they're back! The monsters from last week!" Sam's eyes were wide with uncustomary fear. "What _are_ these things?"

Danny shrugged, then gasped and grabbed Sam and Jazz to pull back around a corner into the alley that served as their driveway as the skull-faced demon lumbered by again. The monstrosity had to stand at least fifteen to twenty feet tall. "I dunno. _Not_ ghosts!"

Sam harrumphed, waving a green-and-silver cylinder under his nose. "Tell me something I don't know. The Fenton Thermos doesn't work on them!"

"Didn't work on them last time, either, Sam," Jazz pointed out with a grimace. She let go of her brother and activated the Ghost Peeler, pausing to let the suit form out of the weapon and envelop her.

Danny blew out a breath. "And there's something else this time, too – some kind of armored ogres that came out of crystals my parents had down in the lab. Were they around last time, too? I don't remember seeing them on the news."

Jazz shook her head, but Sam's breath hitched and she asked, "Crystals? You mean like this one?" She held out a glowing chip of ectoranium.

Jazz blinked in surprise. "Where did you get that?"

Sam shrugged. "Found it lying in the street outside of my house. I saw a bolt of energy come down out of the sky from my bedroom window and hit the street, and this weird, glowing . . . looked like a summoning circle or something formed out of it across the asphalt, and an armored ogre-thing pulled itself up out of it and lumbered off down the street. When I came out to see what was going on, I found this where the energy bolt had – Danny!"

Danny turned to see what Sam was pointing at, then jumped up into a hover, shifting to put himself between the girls and the twelve-foot-tall humanoid that had just come into view from the other side of the Fenton RV. Danny gaped at him, thinking for a moment that he recognized the guy, though God only knew where from. He wore purple robes with a tall, conical cowl, clutching a sea-green staff in one hand. Slanted eyes in an elfin face – vivid blue but with an eerie cast of bright red to them – found Danny as he strode toward them, a green seal glowing coldly over his bluish bangs.

"Okay, buddy, stop right there!" Danny floated forward to meet the intruder, even as a corner of his mind fought to remember why he felt he should know this guy. When the other didn't stop, Danny raised both hands, shooting an ectoplasmic blast from the palms. The intruder caught the energy with the head of his staff, absorbing it into the hooded sphere. He stepped in the last few feet and grabbed Danny by the arm, the strength of the grip surprising for such a fine-boned hand. "Hey! Let go!" Danny tried going intangible, but he couldn't phase through his captor's grip – the being had locked Danny's energy to his somehow. He could feel an empathic presence in his mind as well and a terrible mental struggle of some kind. "Ah!" He put up a fight of his own.

-_Help!_-

Danny froze at the voice in his mind, only then realizing that the struggle for control was not the intruder trying to take over Danny's mind – it was the intruder's fight to break his own free. Danny could feel the hand on his arm shaking with the effort. He looked again into ruby-tainted eyes, seeing intelligence, wisdom, age, and more than a little fear in their depths. "W-was that you?" Maybe it was a stupid question but the only thing Danny could think of in response. He had not so much "heard" the plea as felt and understood a sense of intention from the being.

-_Find . . . t-the Pharaoh._-

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Pharaoh? Wait. Does this have something to do with that whole Duul Amon thing? 'Cause you look more like a Merlin-wannabe than anything from that Egyptian exhibit."

Behind him, Jazz had the gun of the Ghost Peeler braced out in front of her, but he knew she was hesitating to fire in fear that she might hit him by accident. "Danny, move! Go intangible or something!"

"Who are you talking to?" Sam wanted to know, sounding equally exasperated.

Danny ignored them, scowling. "Sorry, dude, but if you wanna find Tuck, you'll have to do it without me. In fact, you'll have to go _through_ me first!" He raised his free hand, intending to blast this guy in the face with another shot of ectoplasmic energy.

The intruder's brow furrowed in confusion behind the seal even as he pressed the head of his staff into Danny's open palm to block the shot, azure eyes losing some of the red light tainting them. -"_T-tuck"? N-no. Nameless . . . Pharaoh . . . find – ! _- The rest of the intention-thought was lost amid a searing agony that Danny could feel burn through the being's mind, reasserting control. The grip on his arm tightened so hard it made Danny grit his teeth in pain. He was just glad his ghost form was a lot more malleable than his human body, or else his wrist and forearm would have been broken for sure.

"Tuck! There you are!"

"Tucker, are you all right?"

Danny glanced over his shoulder to see that Tucker had indeed joined them in the alley, looking a little the worse for wear but largely unharmed.

Tucker met his eye. "Danny, what are you doing? Get away from him!"

"Well, gee, Tuck, why didn't I think of that?" Danny pulled on his arm again.

To his surprise, Tucker folded his arms with a huff and shook his head. "Man, if someone's gonna go around bringing games to life, why can't they do it with something cool, like 'Doomed'? Something lame, even, so long as it was a computer game. Why'd it hafta be a stupid card game?" He glanced down at the PDA in his hand before turning a glare on Danny's captor.

_Game? _Card_ game? Whoa, hold the phone!_ Danny turned to look again at the purple-robed being – and smacked himself in the forehead. "Holy crap, that's why you look so familiar! Y-you're . . . Dark Magician! F-from the Duel Monsters Trading Card Game!" Dark Magician looked up at the sound of his name, pain-riddled eyes finding Danny's. "Dude, what's going on? Who brought you here? C'mon, talk to me!" He covered Dark Magician's grip on his arm with his other hand, as though by the gesture he could help the other break free of whatever it was controlling him. Suddenly, Danny felt really badly for him, knowing what that felt like.

Dark Magician only gazed back for a moment, then bowed his head, eyes closing again as he continued his silent fight. A tear slid down his cheek.

_Whoa, Duel Monsters can cry? Well, I guess if ghosts can . . ._ Danny growled under his breath. Whatever was going on, he was not doing any good where he was. The real fight seemed to be inside. Danny wondered – if he tried to overshadow Dark Magician, maybe he could help Dark Magician throw off whatever energy was controlling him. It was worth a shot, in any case.

Danny braced himself, shifting the focus of his ecto-energies from trying to separate _from_ Dark Magician's to aligning all the more _with_ them, then dove straight forward into Dark Magician's chest. The usual chill tingle shuddered through him, but then a _cold_ unlike anything he had ever felt washed through him without warning, threatening to perma-freeze him in spite of his ice powers. He floated in a spacious void of glowing, ectoplasmic green and yet felt almost claustrophobic under an unbelievable pressure of hate, rage and despair. His head swam, his lungs burned, and he feared he would lose himself in the sea of every ugly emotion humanity had ever experienced. Then, he felt a hand take his, Dark Magician's "voice" distant in his ears. -_No!-_

The breath was smashed from his lungs as he felt himself flung out and down onto hard concrete, the blurred faces of his sister and best friends coming into view over his. Their voices sounded distant and muffled as well as they called his name, asking if he was all right.

Danny coughed, throat rough and dry as though from screaming, his whole body aching as if from tortures he didn't remember suffering. He tried to answer his friends, wanting to assure them that he was all right even though he wasn't so certain of that himself but, to his surprise, one word worked its way up his throat as if of its own accord, one he had not even been aware that he knew.

"O-ori-chal-cos . . . "

With that, he passed out.

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 1 Respite

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 1 – Respite

The hum of the twin rotors was a welcome backdrop to help fill the silence in the belly of the helicopter. Yugi sat slumped back on one of the benches lining the walls of the personnel cabin, looking at the exhausted faces of his friends. Jonouchi and Honda had collapsed against each other on the bench across from him, with Kaiba typing away on his laptop at the opposite end by the cockpit, Mokuba curled up between them. To Yugi's right, Anzu was staring at her hands clasped in her lap. Yugi wondered what she was thinking, but he couldn't bring himself to intrude on her privacy. Instead, he glanced sidelong through his bangs at the tall, broad-shouldered man to his left, sitting across from Kaiba – Raphael. He too looked lost in thought and, from what his other self had shared with him, Yugi could not blame him. The man's world had been turned on its head for the second time in his life and, this time, there was no one to step in and tell him what to believe. He would have to find his own way, and Yugi resolved to help him if he could.

But not now. For now, he had his own matters of the heart to deal with. The helicopter was returning to an American aircraft carrier, the captain of which had helped them get out here to begin with. The captain had been forced to pull back his fleet from the Atlantean temple when the waters got too rough from the storms of Dartz's spellcasting and the energies of the Duel Dartz had fought with Kaiba and Yugi's Other. That had been a good thing, as it turned out, because the helicopter flew over a little, all-but-unknown island on its way to rendezvous with the carrier, consequently picking up Yugi, whom Anzu had spotted standing on the beach after that portal had left him and the spirit there.

"/_USS Intrepid, this is Kaiba Corp Double-Oh-Two . . ._ /"

Yugi tuned out the rest of the quiet chatter from the cockpit as Isono coordinated with someone on the ship. To follow what was being said, he would have to translate the English words – half of which were unknown to him anyway – into Japanese, and he just did not feel like going through that mental exercise right now. He had a feeling he would be doing plenty of that as it was once they landed. Yugi knew the captain and crew would want to thank the group of them and celebrate the fact that they had managed to save the world.

Yugi pulled his feet up onto the bench, crossing his legs and curling forward, elbows braced on thighs as his arms wrapped protectively around the Millennium Puzzle and his soul sought its way into the Item's mystical depths. His other heart had been too quiet since withdrawing into his soul room and, after all that the beleaguered spirit had been through, Yugi loathed for him to be alone right now.

He found himself in his own soul room, a warm, bright space of cheery yellow brick, stone floor strewn with every toy, game, puzzle, and stuffed animal Yugi had ever owned or wanted. He crossed to the door, pulling it open and stepping into the dark hallway, and studied the iron door before him. He set a hand to its veined surface, feeling a chill seep into his palm. He shook his head. It grieved him that his other heart lived in such cold, unforgiving darkness. The spirit's soul room looked like it had been designed from M.C. Escher's "Relativity," with stairs that went in every direction possible and doors interrupting any flat surface large enough to accommodate one. Of course, Yugi understood why this was. Unlike his own soul room, which reflected his complete soul, the room of his other self hid the spirit's true soul room even from the spirit, reflecting instead the labyrinth of the unknown that was the spirit's heart and mind, a conundrum that was as unbreakable as the puzzle of the spirit's sealed memories.

He leaned his forehead against the chill surface of the door, his heart sensing the repressed turmoil within. He had only been into that room two or three times, in reality, though he had stood at the door like he did now to soothe away its owner's nightmares more often than he liked to think about. His other heart had suffered from terrible nightmares for almost as long as he had been active – certainly for as long as he had been fully self-aware, or Yugi aware of his existence. Now, Yugi wondered what nightmares would come from the vile darkness his partner had taken into himself, locked away behind one of the countless doors in his soul room.

"Yugi!"

A hand shaking his shoulder, a worried voice in his ear, pulled Yugi's consciousness back fully into his body before he could get his other self's attention. He sighed as his eyes blinked open, and he turned his bleary vision to Anzu, his grin sincere but still a little more forced than usual. "Yes?"

Anzu studied him a moment, as if trying to determine which "he" he was, before a weary smile graced her lips. "We've landed."

Yugi nodded and uncurled, pushing off the bench to join the others waiting for the rear hatch to open. He glanced around again. Honda and Jonouchi were high-five'ing, apparently revived by excitement at the thought of the dinner that surely would be awaiting them. Anzu stood by Yugi's side, rolling her eyes at the two but still fond in spite of herself. Raphael hung back while Kaiba stood with his brother at the front of the small group so that he would be the first off the helicopter – and the first that the crew would see, greet, and hail. Yugi grinned, wondering if Kaiba was even aware of that, or if the only conscious thought in his mind was being seen at the head of the group, the "first" as he had to be in every other area of his life. Still, it worried Yugi to read the exhaustion in Kaiba's stance. To anyone else, Kaiba was as strong as ever, but Yugi knew him well enough to read the hidden weakness in his tall frame. He himself was barely awake on his feet, thoroughly drained by his other heart's efforts. A hand came up to cover the Millennium Puzzle as he wished his other heart a good rest.

Then, the rear hatch opened, and the small group was beset by raucous rejoicing.

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	3. Chapter 2 Cursed

Author's Notes: I've yet to see the Orichalcos arc of YGO in English. All dialogue below is drawn from what translations of the original Japanese that I've been able to pull together (_much thanks_ to my friend Cody's www. yu-jyo. net website to help clarify when my REALLY POORLY SUBBED Hong-Kong set just did _not_ make sense LOL), sometimes reworded a bit to make more sense to the fluent speaker. One exception to this is a very brief bit drawn from a _much_ earlier manga chapter, as translated by VIZ/Shonen Jump. So, for those familiar with the dub dialogue of the episodes I touch on below, yes, there are some _substantial_ differences in concept and content. Such is the result of letting 4Kids get their hands on something. ((blargh))

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 2 – Cursed

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had felt the questing presence of his other heart, but he had been glad when Anzu pulled Yugi's attention away when she did. He was not ready to face his Light again. Not yet.

He crossed the expanse from his soul room door to the nearest staircase that was "properly" oriented, the hollow echo of his boot heels off the ancient stone all around him a painful soundtrack to his thoughts. He dropped onto the lowest step, curling forward so that his face landed in his hands, elbows propped on his knees, more exhausted than he ever remembered feeling.

_Remember . ._ . The spirit gave a derisive snort. _That's a big chunk of the problem, though, isn't it?_

_"The spirit who was in control of the Darkness Within has resurrected. Your cursed soul is again awakened. Damn you, Nameless Pharaoh! Why must you live again? Your background, your very character, is Darkness! Yes, you! You are the source of Darkness."_

The spirit shuddered in spite of himself as the memory of Dartz's words from only hours ago – or was it truly even less than that? – echoed through his soul room.

_"Accept the fact that your soul is cursed. Even if you open up the maze of your heart and recover your memory, all that's waiting for you is tremendous tragedy."_

Try as he might, the spirit could not silence the damning voice. He curled up as he had then, arms locking tightly around his shins, face tucking behind his knees. Tears fell from eyes squeezed closed. _My recent memories, the images of loved ones . . . the shining goblet . . ._ He shook his head. _It's a lesson I should have remembered from Noa, when Aibou had to pull me in here, show me the new room in my own soul. Jonouchi-kun, Honda-kun, Anzu, Kaiba . . . everyone . . ._ He swallowed back a sob before it could escape up his throat, then growled at himself, forcing himself to straighten from his fetal curl. _Damn it! What's wrong with me? Why am I being like this?_

_ The Darkness of hate, rage, and despair taken into the soul . . . foolish Pharaoh! Think that will have no lasting effect on the heart?_

The spirit gulped at the words of the other voice – the voice of his own conscience or one of the Puzzle itself, he was never sure.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time – or at any rate, his only one, the only remaining choice. He had had no options left, as it had been proven to him many times over that he could not destroy that semi-conscious mass of ugliness, and he certainly could not leave it to roam free.

_"Dartz, all the sins you bear are shouldered by the Nameless Pharaoh."_

Ironheart's words to his son were words of forgiveness, thanksgiving and encouragement . . . but now that he had the time to think about it, the spirit of the Puzzle had to wonder what they meant for _him_.

_And if this is truly why I was carried forward from the past, to stop the destruction that I started in Egypt – or that Dartz started in Atlantis and I merely continued – then why am I still here? Did Dartz, Ironheart, and Kris finally pass on . . . to . . . wherever souls go once they're truly, finally, released from the Mortal Plane? And what of me?_

_"Your cursed soul . . . "_

_ "Dartz, all the sins you bear are shouldered by the Nameless Pharaoh."_

_Chh, what then? Does that make me doubly-cursed?_

The thought had been flippant and careless, born of weary frustration, but it stopped the spirit cold. He felt the trembling return anew, and he hugged his arms around himself. _Oh, gods . . _. He had always suspected that he was condemned somehow, for some sin he no longer remembered, imprisoned in the Millennium Puzzle as some kind of punishment. It was only his bond with Yugi that allowed him to escape the confines of his soul room at all, and his deep ties of love and friendship with his partner and all their friends that made his own existence tolerable, especially in the face of the all-too-frequent foes who came seeking vengeance or to claim his power.

"_Three thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt, when the seal of a Duel Monster was broken, those who were encompassed by the Darkness in them would be drawn together. Back then, those who were encompassed by Darkness fought one another and destroyed everything."_

"_We were the ones who destroyed all this!"_

The spirit shuddered. _No! The Darkness is _not_ what defines me!_

_Isn't it . . . 'Shadow Master'? "Wielder of the knowledge and powers of Darkness." The Puzzle box says as much, carved into its side when it was fashioned to contain the pieces of the broken Puzzle. To contain _you!

_No! That's different . . . a different kind of darkness! A reference to the Shadows! The Shadows are not the same as the Darkness in people's hearts, the blackness of negative emotion that Dartz was talking about!_

_The Shadows know a man's heart, judge it . . . because they best understand and relate to it. The Shadows are not merely evil, just as a man's heart is not. They have the same capacity to be turned to the favor of either Good or Evil. The question is . . . which are _you?_ What are you when you wield them?_

_W-what . . . ? _The spirit swallowed a growing uncertainty.

"_Using my Millennium Eye, I have seen the minds of all kinds of people . . . but never a person with two souls. So that is the power of your Millennium Puzzle."_

"_Who knows? Even I do not know the full power of the Millennium Puzzle. But I feel some kind of force – some _will_ – brought me and my other self together."_

"_You don't know about the evil power hidden in the Millennium Items? Not just an evil power – an evil _intelligence_."_

The spirit pulled a ragged breath. _Pegasus would certainly seem to be right about an evil power hidden in the Millennium Items. Whether intended to be used for Good or Evil, it seems like the only paths they carve are ones of pain. Pegasus, Bakura, Otogi and his father, Malik – indeed the whole Clan of the Tombkeepers – what did any of them know but heartache and hatred for as long as a Millennium Item held any place in their lives at all? Only when freed of the power of whatever Item held their hearts did any of them finally seem to find peace. Only Shadi would seem to be any different . . . but what do we know about him?_

_In that respect, are the Millennium Items any different than the power of the Orichalcos? Am . . . I . . . any different?_ The spirit murmured, scrubbing both hands over his face, as he brought to mind his earliest recollections, the days of Shadow Games and Penalties played far more freely than they were now. Those were the days of reckless, reactive justice and righteousness, with no thought – indeed no concept – of grace or mercy, and no care for the risks. To play a Shadow Game, one risked himself just as much as his opponent. The Game was a fair and balanced one, giving no edge, playing no favorite. It was the hearts of the participants themselves that decided the outcome. Had the spirit ever let his heart falter, he could have lost. And had he lost . . . his soul might not have been the only one to suffer punishment. The spirit had not played a Shadow Game of his own initiation since he had become fully aware of the other, gentler heart that existed alongside his own.

_No . . . no, that's not true_, the spirit moaned. _What were the Orichalcos Duels but another form of Shadow Game? Both drew on the power of the Duel Monsters – by extension, the Shadows – to be fought. Both teetered on the hearts and convictions of the players. So . . . is the power of the Orichalcos merely a facet of the Shadows themselves?_

And there was more. He had indeed put his _aibou_'s soul at risk – again! – when he had known better. It was not the first time Yugi had come under threat, and even direct attack, because of him. Yugi had stood at the spirit's side in the final battle with Pegasus, and nearly succumbed under the energies of the Shadows of that Duel, Shadows he was not yet accustomed to wielding. He had been forced into a Duel with Otogi, then dragged into a locked room that caught fire and nearly killed him, in a bid to claim the Puzzle from him. Malik had threatened his life alongside the spirit's own several times throughout the course of Battle City, culminating in Yugi's very soul hanging on the line of the spirit's Life Points. The spirit had come far too close to losing his _aibou_ then . . . but at least it had not been his own doing to place his _aibou_'s soul so directly in the line of fire, not like he had done . . . gods, was it truly only just yesterday morning? It seemed like so much longer. He had been a fool to think that Yugi would stand by while the spirit's soul was taken. Of _course_ Yugi would act to protect him, just as he always had, even unto the point of utterly sacrificing himself to do so.

And . . . was it possible . . . that some corner of the spirit's mind had counted on that?

The spirit choked on the thought, but he could not deny it. He didn't want to believe himself capable of such coldness of heart, but he had already proven his capacity more times than he cared to recall. The most chilling was an afternoon on a battlement on Duelist Kingdom Island, facing down a decomposing Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, the creature's summoner standing precariously on the edge of the parapet. _Kaiba. Gods, if . . . if Aibou hadn't . . . stopped me . . . _

It was always his Light that drew him back from the edge. Or almost always. Why had he rejected Yugi's wisdom when they had faced Raphael the first time! He had never done that before! And then when he had needed Yugi's guidance the most . . . his partner wasn't there. On the train against Haga, it had taken Anzu physically grabbing him to break him from a blind rage that crippled his heart with deep shame now to recall. He never would have pulled such a terrible play, not even on despicable Haga, had Yugi been there! That wasn't like him at all!

Or was it?

Tears fell now as they had so many times since that first moment when he rejected and lost his other heart, tears of grief and self-judgment at what he had done. _Aibou has led me, his gentle heart guiding me, for so long . . . you'd think I'd have _learned_ after all this time!_

"_Your cursed soul!"_

_Am I stuck then? Has my heart truly never changed? _Will_ it never change?_ He had told Dartz that he believed himself brought forward through time to stop Dartz's madness, but what did that resolve in the matter of the questions of his own existence? If he were truly the cursed soul of a king once drowned in darkness, whose evil deeds had wrought the destruction of his own kingdom, then were even his actions today enough to clean his eternal record?

"_Aibou . . . in this Duel, I've been supported by everyone. It's the first time I've clearly understood the responsibility and mission as Pharaoh. My duty is to destroy the Darkness on this planet."_

_But . . . I didn't. _The spirit murmured miserably at that._ I didn't destroy the Darkness. I only concealed it, contained it. Within my own heart, my own soul room, no less. And what have I _ever_ understood of being Pharaoh, if I destroyed my own kingdom and the people who must have looked to me for guidance and protection?_

"_Your cursed soul . . . "_

_ "Dartz, all the sins you bear are shouldered by the Nameless Pharaoh."_

So . . . he freed Dartz from the curse that had held him for ten thousand years, and for that he was glad. But for himself . . . what had he gained?

"_This is my fight! This is a fight of justice and truth. What I gain in this battle, and the mission falling on me, is the will of everyone."_

Remembering his own words from what could not have been even an hour ago, he could not help but scoff. _What mission? What will? Chh. Big words. Sounds like the climax of a movie, when the time comes for the hero to make his grand proclamations before he pulls his final, ultimate move on the villain, winning the day once and for all._

He supposed he had won, after a fashion. And it was easy to speak such great words when emotions were high and everything hung in the balance. People said all kinds of grandiose things from such positions. And how many times had he found himself in "such positions"?

He groaned. More times than he cared to count. And it was not even that he went seeking to place himself on those mountains, but that the mountains forced themselves up from under his feet without warning, and sometimes it was all he could do to flap his arms and keep his balance until he could understand what was going on _this_ time.

And it was only a matter of time before the next mountain rose.

The spirit crossed back to the door of his soul room, cracking it open enough to let his senses flow up and out, nodding as his _aibou_ felt and greeted him. Through Yugi's eyes, he saw the people around them, especially their loved ones: Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda, Kaiba and Mokuba, even Raphael and Kaiba's trusted assistants, Isono and Fubeta, who had stuck by their boss's side throughout all of this. Even when Kaiba tried to release them of obligation, the two refused to abandon him, believing in him to the end.

The group had been lucky this time. The spirit pulled back with a shudder as he remembered half of them laying strewn about the floor in the central chamber of Dartz's temple, while he alone had been left. He had gotten everyone else's souls back, just as with Malik. And Noa. And Pegasus. But how much of all this would never have happened had he . . .

"_Still struggling, Nameless Pharaoh? Look around you. All those protecting you have already fallen. Those relationships you believe in no longer exist. You are the only one yet to be freed from suffering. What's the point? Accept the fact that your soul is cursed. Even if you open up the maze of your heart and recover your memory, all that's waiting for you is tremendous tragedy."_

Realizing again the existence of his "memory container," the inner goblet from which he could drink and regain his light of hope from the love of his friends, was what had saved him today, both in the temple in the face of the completed Three-Layered Realm of Orichalcos and then at the heart of the maelstrom threatening to burn him out of existence, searing him from the inside out, and he had come to his solution – that he did not have to try to destroy the indestructible, merely contain it.

"_The memory of my past, my life – do I have it? Deep in my hollow heart, is there something I can't deny? There! Now I see it. I've never been mindful. Deep in my heart, there is a memory container we've all built together of our ties to one another. That's what I have. I am not hollow at all. As long as it exists, I can be renewed again and again."_

"_Other Me, no matter how you suffer, please don't be confused. Believe in your friends. You are not alone at all."_

So long as he remembered his friends, his loved ones, he was not alone. He was not "nothing." But there was something he had not taken into account as he had considered all of that, and that was that his memory container had failed him once before, that it had been successfully, _thoroughly_, taken from him. Now, he had the memories of this present existence, and the dear friends who had walked his path with him thus far, in spite of all the attempts that had come along to steal them away from him. But there was another container, an older one, that he did not have access to, that he could not drink from as needed. He had been afforded glimpses into the depths of that goblet, in his Battle City Duel with Kaiba over a week ago and then with Dartz just today, and he could not help but wonder – would a day come when his existence changed again, when this new goblet would be capped irrevocably, the door of his room of memories with his present loved ones sealed by another "tremendous tragedy"? Numerous forces had come for him over the past few years since his awakening, and he knew that he would be a fool to think that no more would come after this. And it was only a matter of time before one or more of his loved ones suffered because of him and did _not_ recover when all was said and done. It was only a matter of time before a force came before him that was indeed greater than he and would finally destroy him.

Or to which he might submit.

If no outside force ever succeeded to claim or destroy him, he still had to worry now about the one within. Behind a new door in his labyrinthine soul room, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle could feel even now the black beast of millennia-old hate, rage and despair, the Orichalcos Serpent, struggling mindlessly against its binds.

He could only pray that it never slipped loose. He was not at all sure he could overcome it a second time.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

A figure pulled back into the depths of an alcove between two columns as the Pharaoh vanished, releasing his cohesion back into the greater energies of the Millennium Puzzle to get the rest he so desperately needed.

_Keh, but what "rest" will you find with such fear and confusion on your heart, hateful Pharaoh? Hm?_ The figure grinned to himself, a nasty expression that usually flashed just enough fang to unnerve any opponent.

It had been surprisingly simple to conceal his own thoughts behind the façade of "conscience" to stir the Pharaoh's uncertainty and pain as one might stoke a campfire. People often imagined hearing a second voice in their heads as they debated some difficult issue with themselves, and that voice did not always sound exactly like one inherently from within. Ever since he had been placed – an extension of the Ring-spirit's soul sealed into the Puzzle by a power of the Millennium Ring called "Parasite Mind" – he had often heard the Pharaoh essentially "talk to himself" thus . . . and sometimes had even participated, always careful to hide any sensation of his true identity. He only interacted when the Pharaoh was most exhausted or most confused, and therefore that much less likely to sense him, merely nudging him further over whatever edge he already teetered on. It was at those times that he himself was most free to wander and conduct his search, while the Pharaoh was distracted with his own misery.

He had been seeking the Pharaoh's true soul room for months now, intent on claiming for himself the power contained within, and had finally had to admit defeat. It simply was not something he was going to be able to find and unlock on his own, but would have to bide his time until the Pharaoh finally managed to do it.

However . . . there was now a new power in residence, one the Pharaoh had no intention of trying to harness and control, but one that the spirit of the Millennium Ring, through this parasitic extension, had witnessed in action firsthand.

_Very well, then, foolish Pharaoh. If _you_ will not claim it . . ._

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 3 Aftermath

Author's Note: I think they ignored it altogether or were just saying it was a hurricane in the dub, but in the original Japanese in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dartz's efforts caused a massive underwater earthquake that sent a tsunami-sized tidal wave heading for the eastern North American coast. The shots were cut from the dub (though screencaps are on my friend Cody's Yu-Jyo site "www. yu-jyo. net"), but the tidal wave can be seen shadowing the Statue of Liberty and threatening NYC, only to disappear suddenly and without a trace when Yami managed to contain the Orichalcos Serpent and break the curse on Dartz once and for all. This is what Maddie and Tucker are talking about.

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 3 – Aftermath

Blood, pain, rage, terror and despair flowed around him on eddies of purple-black clouds, living shadows laced with trails of ectoplasmic green, looking like dye in a glass of slow-stirred water. He was drowning in it, pressed from all around as though he had been plunged deep beneath the ocean. Try as he might, he could not swim to the surface. It was everything he could do to move his limbs at all. Cold suffocation threatened to steal his consciousness, burning his lungs from the inside out, but he knew he could not succumb. He had to keep fighting, had to keep moving, had to escape, had to stop this, had to –

Had to wake up!

He had to wake up. He had already lost consciousness! He remembered the watery faces of his friends hovering over him before the darkness took him, and another face before that – two, actually. One was almost elfin with its delicate features and slanted, azure eyes, the other angular, hard, with guarded eyes of amethyst that had seen far too much in a young life cut short . . .

_Find . . . the Pharaoh. T-the Nameless . . . Pharaoh . . . _

Agony sliced through him, sharper and deeper than he ever could have thought possible. He screamed.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

"Danny! Danny! Wake up, man! Dammit, _wake up!_"

Danny did wake up, the scream dying in his throat as the horror in Tucker's voice broke through the pain and disorientation. A quick glance told him he was no longer in the purple-black void, nor even in the alley. He was in his room, on his bed, though Tucker hovered over him the same as he had the last time Danny remembered seeing him. By the light coming in through his bedroom window, Danny guessed it to be late afternoon, maybe evening. _That . . . can't be right . ._ .

"D-danny . . . ?"

Danny refocused on Tucker, taking in the crease of his brow, his wide eyes, the way he was _gripping_ his PDA so hard he might break it and never even notice. Danny frowned and pushed Tucker back. "Don't look at me like that, Tuck. I'm okay. Really – w-whoa . . . " He had tried to sit up but a sudden wave of vertigo – and something tugging on an arm – made him lay back down again. He looked to see one of his parents' odd contraptions next to him on the side of the bed opposite Tucker. It almost looked like some kind of hospital machine, like a heart monitor . . . but not.

"Okay? OKAY?" Tucker blew out an exasperated breath. "Dude, you are _so_ _not_ okay! You've been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours! And not just unconscious – barely breathing! We thought that Duel-Monster-wannabe ghost-thing had _killed_ you until Jazz pulled a mirror from the RV and checked for breath. Sam almost couldn't even find a heartbeat, man! You freaking _scared_ us!"

Danny had pulled the cuff from the machine off of his arm. "W-what?"

"You think I'm kidding? I'm tellin' ya – you didn't twitch or make a sound for hours! It's like you were alive but no one was home, like your soul'd gone on vacation without you or something."

Soul gone. Why did that sound . . . accurate, somehow?

"Then all of a sudden, you're screaming and thrashing around like Skulker'd gotten a hold of you and was zapping you with that electrical attack of his until your brains were gonna leak outta your ears. Or like the entire population of the Ghost Zone was after you and you were stuck in your human form – "

"AH!" Danny shot upright again, this time ignoring the nausea that made his head swim. He forced his eyes to focus past the stars clouding his vision and was relieved to find himself in his jeans and t-shirt, not the black-and-white jumpsuit of his ghost form.

Tucker nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "Nah, man, it's okay. You reverted pretty much as soon as you hit the pavement."

He had been about to say more but, just then, Danny's mother called up from somewhere below. "Danny! Tucker, is Danny awake? His monitor stopped transmitting!"

Danny and Tucker flinched almost as one at the depth of anxiety in her voice. "It's all right, Mrs. Fenton," Tucker called even as they heard footsteps rushing up the stairs.

Maddie arrived in the doorway, then was across the room in the next instant, throwing her arms around her son. "Oh, Danny! You had us so worried! Are you all right, sweetie? What happened?"

Danny panicked, glancing over her shoulder at Tucker, looking for an alibi. "I-I, ah . . . I don't know, Mom. I . . . don't remember. I was with Jazz, and then . . . um . . . "

Tucker had a hand on Maddie's arm, pulling her gently back. "Mrs. Fenton, ease up. You'll choke him or something."

Reluctantly, Maddie did so, though even through the goggles, Danny could see her studying him as though to make sure for herself that he really was all right.

"I'm not surprised he doesn't remember," Tucker continued. "It was a crazy night, and he hit his head pretty hard. Let him rest for a while, and I'm sure it will all come back to him."

Translation: _Go away so we can talk and come up with a convincing story._

Danny couldn't help but wonder what story Jazz had already given her and their dad. He flashed Tucker an appreciative grin while his mother was turned away to look at his best friend. The smile turned sheepish when her attention came back to him. "I'm okay, Mom. Promise. Sorry I scared you."

Maddie looked at him a moment longer, then sighed and combed a hand affectionately through his hair, pulling her hood and goggles back with the other – and Danny saw the tears in her eyes. They wrenched at his heart. "If you're sure . . . then all right. But . . . your father and I have been worried sick about you! And Sam too. Jazz finally had to pull her away from your side to take her out somewhere and distract her or something. I mean, she was sitting there so hard and determined . . . that's just not right for someone her age . . . " She shook her head, then pulled him in for one more hug before making herself stand and step back. "Anyway, you must be terribly hungry. Your father's meeting with '_Mayor Masters_' – " She made a face. " – and a few other town officials about what happened, and I don't know what time Jazz and Sam will be back, so it's just the three of us for dinner. How about I make some spaghetti? With sliced franks. Do you like hot dogs, Tucker?"

Danny grimaced at a memory. "So long as they're not _haunted_ franks . . . "

Tucker canted a questioning look at Danny before nodding. "Anything's fine with me, Mrs. Fenton. Thanks."

Maddie gave him a grin, started to leave the room, then stopped so abruptly that Danny almost wondered if she had hit some kind of invisible wall. She turned back into the room with an expression on her face like she had suddenly remembered something horrific in the wake of her son's improved state. "Tucker, you've been following the news . . . " She nodded at the PDA. "I was just about to head up here anyway right before Danny's monitor quit. Did you see! That tsunami that was going to hit the whole east coast . . . _didn't!_" She had a stupefied look on her face.

Danny frowned. "_East_ coast? Tsunami? Isn't that a Japanese thing?" World geography was not exactly his strongest point, but still . . .

Tucker rolled his eyes, either dismissing the importance of Maddie's words or forgetting the gravity of the situation in the face of his friend's ignorance – Danny could not tell which. "The _word_ is Japanese, but no. 'Tsunami – any colossal tidal wave caused by something like an earthquake or volcanic eruption underwater'." Tucker's voice had gone almost robotic, but then he paused, blinking, before he planted a palm against his temple with a loud groan. "Man, I _hate_ that stupid Cram-tastic helmet thing." He shook his head, refocusing. "Anyway, there was a _huge_ seaquake a little over an hour ago out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it created a wave that – that's right!" He turned back to Maddie, shock on his face. "That thing was supposed to wipe out everything from, like, Massachusetts to Virginia! Wasn't that supposed hit five or ten minutes ago?" He glanced at his watch.

Maddie shrugged, equally stricken. "Yes! They'd even managed to completely evacuate all but the biggest cities for about fifty miles inland all along the coast, but a little before Danny's monitor stopped transmitting, the tsunami just . . . vanished! There was a news helicopter filming from over New York City, and you could see it, hundreds of feet tall!" She waved her hands over her head almost comically to illustrate. "And then, it . . . just . . . disappeared!"

Trying to follow all this was making Danny's head throb. Disappearing ghosts he could deal with. Disappearing tidal waves? Not so much. He leaned back on one hand and scrubbed his face with the other, suddenly feeling very tired.

Once again, Tucker came to his rescue. "Must have been something the ghosts were doing to intimidate us 'poor, defenseless' humans, only it turned out to be too much work or something. Anyway, I'm sure Danny doesn't need to be overloaded with all this right now. How about I fill him in a little more while you work on unhaunted franks?" He gave her his best charming-Foley smile.

Maddie nodded thoughtfully. "Must have been. I'm glad whatever they did to you finally wore off, sweetie," she added, addressing Danny. Then, she scowled. "Whatever ghost did that to you, though, had better _pray_ it never crosses paths with me! I'll make sure it doesn't have any ecto-atoms _left_ to hurt anyone else ever again by the time I'm done with it." With that, she headed back downstairs.

_But it wasn't Dark Magician's fault_. Danny didn't know how he knew this, but he was certain. In fact, he knew that Dark Magician had tried to _save_ him. Failed to, apparently, but at least he had tried.

He found Tucker studying him again, and he swallowed a growl, swinging his feet over the side of his bed and rubbing a lingering ache from his arms. "Okay, Tuck, spill it. Where are Sam and Jazz? And what happened to all the monsters? What did you guys tell my parents? And what is _that_?" He thumbed over his shoulder at the not-a-heart-monitor contraption.

Tucker threw his hands up in front of him. "Whoa! Let me take notes or something so I don't forget so many questions in a row! First of all, the monsters, or whatever they were, disappeared about mid-morning. Jazz came up with a song-and-dance about you and her getting separated, then finding you lying on the ground outside just as me and Sam arrived. Jazz managed to get Sam out of the house so she'd stop worrying so badly. You know how she can get – always has to be _doing_ something, and it drives her nuts when she's not. They're at the Skulk and Lurk right now doing research. And as for _that_ . . . " He sighed. "Your parents didn't figure any hospital would be able to tell what was wrong, so they didn't bother taking you to Emergency. They 'knew' – " He made air-quotes with his fingers. " – that it was ghost-related, so they were monitoring you for ecto-energy activity."

"What?"

"Relax, Danny. Of _course_ they found a positive reading, but they totally mistook _why_, so it's all good. And you took the monitor off, which of course alerted your mom, but she probably assumes that the energies ran their course or something. And even if she scanned you again now, she'll probably just think it's lingering aftereffects from what happened last night." He squinted at Danny. "Speaking of which, what _did_ happen last night?"

"How should I know? All these strange monsters – that _aren't_ ghosts – started popping up all over town again and – "

Tucker waved a hand to cut him off. "No, not that. I mean you trying to overshadow – " He poked at his PDA with the stylus a few times, calling up some information. " – Dark Magician from the looks of it, and him spazzing and kicking you back out, and then you passing out on us, and then waking up screaming like that. And, dude – " He glanced over his shoulder at the door. " – you are _so_ lucky your mom didn't hear it, because I don't know she'd have left so easily, you know?"

"Y-yeah . . . " Danny rubbed the back of his neck, then let his gaze fall from Tucker to the surface of the bed, half-hoping the solid, undistracting blue of his bedspread would help him to focus. "Orichalcos . . . " he murmured hesitantly after a moment of trying to make sense of the jumble of impressions swimming through the back of his mind.

Tucker eyed him. "Yeah. You said that last night, too, right before you zonked out on us. Any idea what it means?"

Danny searched mentally for a moment longer, then shook his head. "Not a clue."

Tucker sighed. "Eh, maybe Sam and Jazz have – !" He froze with a look of horror, then planted his face into his free hand, his glasses the only things that kept him from poking his eye out with the stylus. "Ah, man, they are _so_ gonna kill me!"

"Huh? Why?"

Tucker pulled out a cell phone and dialed. "I promised them I'd call _as SOON as_ you woke up. So, ah . . . you've _just_ woken up, got it?"

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	5. Chapter 4 Debriefing

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 4 – Debriefing

Yugi rubbed his shoulder, fearing his arm would fall off if he shook another hand. About a third of the crew finally had been shooed off to get back to work – those that were on duty right now – and the rest just continued to celebrate.

They had been right about the food. It seemed as if the entire contents of the galley had been emptied onto the flight deck for a festive party. A few crew members had even thought to dig up some Japanese music to play for the guests of honor. Yugi grinned at that. Most of what was played came from one crewmate's anime soundtrack collection, so they listened to the opening and closing theme songs of everything from _Vampire Hunter D_ to _Sailor Moon_ to _Yu Yu Hakusho_ and _Yoroiden: Samurai Troopers_. It was the thought that counted, of course, and Yugi laughed mentally as he thought how he would never forget listening to Honda singing along to "Samurai Heart," "Shinjuku Sunset," and "Midnight Party," being a _Yoroiden_ fan himself. The last Yugi had seen of his friend was him finding a quiet corner with . . . Yugi thought he remembered her nametag saying "Hausler," one of the music donors, so they could speak and be better heard. Jonouchi had gotten into an arm-wrestling match with a few other sailors, while Kaiba and Mokuba had made themselves scarce at first opportunity, taking Isono and Fubeta with them. Yugi guessed that Rear Admiral Edwards, the commander of the small fleet, had taken Kaiba someplace where he could access the Internet and get back in touch with Kaiba Corp. Anzu had commented on wanting to get a shower, so a couple of the female crew members had taken her below deck. That left only him and Raphael.

They sat in a corner away from the noise and bustle, and Yugi caught the taller man studying him sidelong. Yugi looked up. "Yes, Raphael-san?"

A flinch of surprise registered across the man's stoic features for a moment before he looked away, but then he made himself meet Yugi's gaze. "How is he?"

"Nn?"

"The Pharaoh. Is he all right? And . . . are _you_, for that matter?"

Yugi could not help but notice that Raphael had dropped "Nameless." That made him glad. Though it was true that his other heart did not know his name, to call him "nameless" outright was a direct slap-in-the-face insult. Yugi grinned. "I'm fine, and he's . . . okay. He's sleeping right now."

Raphael gave him a faintly puzzled look. "You can tell that?"

Yugi shrugged. "I can sense things about him, just like he can sense things about me."

"When . . . you're together," the man added after a brief, uncomfortable hesitation.

"Raphael-san . . . " Yugi turned to face him more fully. "Raphael-san, Other-Me and I haven't had a chance to talk as fully as we'd like yet, but he _has_ told me a little of what happened while . . . while I was gone and – " He pulled a breath, his gaze steady as he met the taller man's eye. " – and I understand why. I'm sorry about what happened to you, Raphael-san. You lost your parents, your brother and sister . . . everyone on the whole ship, in fact. Other-Me and I aren't happy about what that meant for us, but . . . we understand _why_, and . . . we don't hold it against you. Please don't hold it against yourself. That's all past now . . . okay?" He held out his hand.

Raphael stared at him in disbelief but, after a long moment, he closed his eyes, swallowed, met Yugi's gaze again . . . and took his hand. "Thank you. Both of you. If there is anything I can do to help, to . . . at least try to make up for what I've done to you, name it. I will do it if I can, or find someone for you if I can't."

Yugi grinned and nodded. "I'm sure that won't be necessary, but thank you very much." He paused, then asked, "In the meantime, though, what do you plan to do? Even with as big a company as Paradias is, I have to wonder how long it and all its subsidiaries will last now that Dartz is gone. And even if it does, will you continue to work for them?"

Raphael shook his head. "I'm done with that company and everything it represents. I'll . . . find work elsewhere."

"Well . . . your Japanese is really good. Maybe you can come back to Japan with us. What did you used to do for Dartz?"

A very small, rueful grin marred the stoicism of the big man's features. "Besides steal souls for the Orichalcos?"

Yugi laughed. "Yup, besides that."

Raphael turned and gazed back out over the flight deck. "I was Dartz-sama's right-hand man. Organizer, bodyguard, median contact . . . " He shrugged.

"Organizer and bodyguard." Yugi considered for a moment before voicing his thought. "Kaiba Corporation is a large company. I wonder if Kaiba-kun could use your skills."

Raphael frowned. "I doubt Kaiba – "

"Appreciates being discussed and having his decisions made for him," put in a curt voice from Yugi's other side.

Yugi jumped and turned, looking up. "Kaiba-kun! Good evening. Did you get a lot of work done?"

Kaiba ignored the question, glancing between the two to make sure he had both ones' attention. "Rear Admiral Edwards wants to speak with us. All of us." He cast a typically "Kaiba" half-glare at Jonouchi, still sitting at a table several yards from them with a small number of the ship's crew, before refocusing on Yugi and Raphael. "Round up the rest of the Geek Squad and meet us in the conference room below." He turned and strode off without waiting for a reply.

Raphael watched him leave as Yugi pushed to his feet. "Is he always so . . . abrupt?"

Yugi pulled a breath and let it out slowly. "Yup, pretty much . . . but he's really not a bad person, just one that a lot of bad things have happened to, so he's really guarded."

_Even more than someone else I know_, he added mentally, a hand finding the Puzzle chain as sadness pricked briefly in his heart. His _other_ heart had come a long way since they had first discovered each other's presence, just as he himself had. Yugi just wished he could help Kaiba that way too, but every attempt had been brusquely denied. He shook his head at that, then paused to turn inward and wake his other self before approaching Jonouchi as Raphael went to get Honda. Yugi knew that "Other-Yugi's" presence would be wanted at that meeting as well.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

He had been right, if only because his other heart could more fully report what had happened than he himself could. The company had shared a version of the events with the crew at large, but the rear admiral had wanted the whole story, having assured them that sensitive details would remain in the strictest confidence. That promise was hardly comforting to Kaiba, not after the issue of the whole nation's security being usurped and all, but he told the story anyway, as much as he could, with the spirit filling in as necessary. Kaiba did most of the talking, partly because it was in his nature and partly because his English was far better than Other-Yugi's, who could make himself understood when pressed but was decidedly less than fluent. Much of Other-Yugi's world-knowledge depended on understanding gained from Yugi's own mind and heart, and Yugi's English was only as good as his class grade reflected. It was not his strongest subject of study in school.

Once the events of the day were recounted to the rear admiral's satisfaction, the conversation turned to the subject of "what next."

"/_I've managed to have all of Kaiba Corporation's stocks returned to their rightful owners, including myself and Mokuba./"_

It never ceased to amaze Yugi to listen to Kaiba speak in English. His pronunciation and fluidity in the language sounded native.

Mokuba's was not nearly so flawless, but still impressive. "/Nii-sama _is president and chairman again, as he should be!_/"

"/_Indeed_,/" Kaiba murmured. He turned to the rear admiral. "/_My helicopter sustained some damage from the storms –_ /"

Rear Admiral Edwards nodded, not needing to be asked. "/_We don't have the exact parts for your model, but what we do have should be more than . . . . . ._ /"

Yugi did not know the last word Edwards used, but Fubeta was translating for him, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda as needed, and apparently Edwards had said something like "sufficient."

Kaiba nodded once. "/_I'll need repairs and fuel, and possibly a refuel mid-air along the way, or someplace to land for it. We'll be going to the northernmost part of Indiana, near Gary on the southern tip of Lake Michigan_./"

Honda gaped after hearing Fubeta's translation. "Wait! Aren't we going back to Japan?"

Kaiba glared at him. "/_English, Honda. You don't want to insult our hosts_./"

Honda flinched, then bowed to Edwards. "/_Sorry. Kaiba, we are not going back to . . . _ano, Nihon?/"

Kaiba glanced at Edwards, clarifying. "/_Japan. And no, we're not. Not right away. I was in the middle of negotiations with several entities in Indiana before the situation with Paradias started. As it is, this whole farce may have cost me a number of deals I was working on._/"

Mokuba was beaming. "/Nii-sama_ is about ready to open the first Kaiba-Land back in California, and the market studies are already showing so much promise that he's been working on securing more places for futures sites around the country_./"

"/_For the Indiana project, I'm looking to build somewhere between Gary and Michigan City. That will put it in an underdeveloped area, and yet close enough to a major metropolis – Chicago, Illinois – for wider tourist travel to reach it easily_./"

Edwards nodded his approval. "/_Once this tour is up, I'll have to see about taking my family on a vacation to one of your Kaiba-Lands_./"

Anzu's brow furrowed in thought. "/_Gary . . . Chicago_ . . . /" She looked up at Kaiba. "/_How long do you think we'll be there_?/"

Kaiba studied her. "/_Minimum of a few days. I'd expect at least a week. Why?_/"

"/_I . . . have a friend who lives in that area, I think. An American I've been_ . . . /" She frowned, trying to think of the right word. "/ . . . ano, _'penpal' writing? – for a few years now, since primary school. I remember she tried to explain to me once where she lives_./" She turned to Edwards. "/_Do you have a computer with Internet I could use for a few minutes? I'll write to her and see if she lives there and if we can visit_./"

Kaiba glowered. "/_This isn't a sight-seeing vacation, Anzu_./"

"/_Not for you_,/" Anzu huffed, "/_but what are the rest of us supposed to do for a week while you're in meetings?_/"

"/_She's got a point, Kaiba_,/" Jonouchi put in.

"/_We have no money_./"

Partially merged with his other heart so that he could see through their eyes, Yugi watched everyone turn to Other-Yugi, startled by his quiet reminder. It was the first time he had spoken up since he and Kaiba had finished their report.

"/_True_ . . . /" Anzu looked crestfallen.

Kaiba looked back and forth between the two, shook his head, and turned to leave. "/_Contact your friend and see if she's free to entertain you people for me. I have work to do_./"

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	6. Chapter 5 Reconnaissance

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 5 – Reconnaissance

She could kill him. She was _so_ going to kill him! He was a dead man; he just didn't know it yet. Not even the Fenton Thermos would be able to pick up more than a scrap or two of his shredded soul by the time she was done with him! GRARGH!

"Sam, slow down!" Jazz pleaded, panting. "Sam, I know you're upset, but come on! He's had a lot on his mind, what with Danny – !"

"He's still a dead man!" Sam did not break stride, leaving Jazz to keep up the best she could. Even with her longer legs, Jazz seemed to be finding that a challenge. "He couldn't have looked up the Skulk and Lurk's phone number on that stupid PDA of his? He could have called us _there!_ Lynda'd have answered the phone, and if he'd have asked for me, she would have told us right away!"

"I know, I know!" Jazz agreed, her tone placating as always. "But he's probably been busy with catching up Danny on what's been going on, as well as trying to ward off Mom. And maybe even Dad, too. That meeting with Vlad's _got_ to be done with by now."

The sun had been set for at least an hour when Jazz and Sam decided it was time to take a break for dinner, both girls' stomachs beginning to complain rather loudly. They had no sooner gone a dozen yards from the Goth bookstore on their way to the Nasty Burger, however, when both of their cell phones buzzed at them that they had voicemails. "I've _told_ Tucker a hundred times that Skulk and Lurk gets ZERO cell service!" Sam had raged after they listened to their messages. Dinner forgotten, the two were racing back to Fenton Works.

Jazz pulled out her key and let them in. They could hear the banging and chatter from the basement that indicated Danny's parents were hard at work in the lab. They were passing the kitchen on the way to the stairs for the second story when they were intercepted by Tucker, who was wiping his mouth like he had just had something to drink.

Tucker met their eyes with a grin. "Oh, hey! You guys finally get my – ?" A quick tug on the front of his beret, knocking off his glasses as the edge came down to the bridge of his nose, interrupted him.

"I told you to call us at the Skulk and Lurk!"

Tucker fumbled to catch his glasses before they hit the ground. Adjusting his beret, he squinted at Sam myopically. "What? I did! It's not _my_ fault they don't have any coverage." He replaced his glasses on his face.

"I _meant_ to call the _store's_ phone number!" Sam ground out through gritted teeth.

"Oh. Well, you should have _said_ – "

It was probably a good thing that Jazz got between her and Tucker at that moment, before she could get her fingers around his throat.

Jazz eyed her, a clear "not now!" all over her expression, and turned to the techno-geek. "Tucker, is Danny upstairs?"

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Danny set down Tucker's PDA, where he had been reading about Duel Monsters and some of the real-life people who played the game. For some reason, his attention kept getting pulled to a small group out of . . . Japan of all places. Well, no, he supposed that was not so unusual. The Japanese were well-known for taking very odd things and blowing them up into bigger importance. _J__ust look at some of their game shows! Heck, for that matter, _they_ seem to like giant, city-destroying monsters, too._ Not that Danny really believed there was a correlation, in all honesty. But now, Danny was getting a headache, and he scrubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes to try to alleviate it.

"Oh my God! Danny!" Almost before he could register his door being thrown open, Sam had tackled him on the bed, throwing her arms around him.

Danny felt his cheeks flush in spite of himself – Sam was hugging him! He hugged back out of reflex, but she seemed to come to her senses just then and backed off, her own cheeks a bit colored, a sheepish grin on her face. "S-sorry about that. I'm really glad you're okay, though."

Danny could not help the pang of disappointment. She was just worried about him as a friend. But . . . that was all right.

The awkwardness broke in the next instant as Jazz followed, also hugging her brother tightly. "We've been so worried," she murmured into his shoulder before she made herself back up. Hands still on his shoulders, she looked him in the eyes, her own pleading for explanation. "Danny, are you okay? What happened last night?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about how best to answer. He had not told Tucker yet about his . . . not-a-dream. It had been real, somehow, though he could not for the life of him describe how. Tucker's comment about his soul seeming to be missing, however, had stricken him in a way he had not been able to shake since. He had told Tucker he would wait until the girls got back to tell everyone once, as he really did not want to have to recount it – to remember it – more than was necessary. Now, Tucker was eyeing him just as much as Jazz and Sam.

He pulled a breath and told them about his dream, as well as the first experience when he had tried to overshadow Dark Magician, and the dry hoarseness and deep ache throughout his body right afterwards. By the time he was done, Jazz had a hand over her mouth, Tucker was gaping at him, and even Sam looked a little queasy for a moment.

Tucker blew out a low whistle. "Dude, that . . . that's just . . . "

Jazz released the breath she had been holding, recovering quickly as well. "As if you don't _already_ need therapy!" Her tone fit the seriousness of the situation, but the glint in her eyes told him that her words were meant as a joke. Mostly.

Danny shivered, rubbing his arms at the memory. "Tell me about it. So – " He looked at the large books cradled in the crook of Jazz's arm and the shoulder bag slung over Sam's shoulder. Danny would have grinned had the situation not been so alarming – it was the Emily the Strange laptop tote he had bought her for her birthday. "Did you guys find anything?"

Sam frowned as she moved to the bed, setting down the tote and pulling out her laptop. "Maybe, though it's sketchy at best." Danny watched her wake up the computer from hibernation, sign in, connect to his family's wireless signal, and pull up a website she had bookmarked in her browser. It was an article on Wikipedia.

Tucker looked over their shoulders, reading aloud from the introduction of the article. " 'Orichalcum is a legendary metal mentioned in several ancient writings, most notably the story of Atlantis as recounted in the 'Critias' dialogue, recorded by Plato. According to Critias, orichalcum was considered second only to gold in value, and was found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times. By the time of Critias, however, it was known only by name.' "

Danny's eyes had fallen away from the computer screen as sounds – names – tickled at the back of his mind. "No . . . no, not 'Criti_as_.' Criti_us_, with an '_oo_'. And . . . Hermos . . . and Timaeus." Tucker gave him a funny look, stepped back to work his PDA, which he had snatched up from the bed to rescue from possible damage when Sam tackled Danny, and gave Danny an even funnier look. _Well . . . okay, so maybe "funny's" not the right word_, Danny thought. "What?"

"Dude, since when did you know so much about ancient civilizations?"

"Huh? I don't. They . . . " Danny's voice trailed off as he mentally scrambled through incoherent wisps of knowledge made even fuzzier by the overlaying memory of torture and suffocation. " . . . dragons. They're dragons. Or . . . no, wait. They're knights."

Jazz looked at him and shivered. "Danny, I think you're scaring me."

Tucker shook his head. "Wrong, and wrong. They're ancient Greek guys from the time of Plato and Socrates. Criti_as_ – " He emphasized the "a," much to Danny's annoyance. " – and Hermos were politicians, and 'Timaeus' was a dialogue written by Plato." He frowned at his PDA, poked it a few times with the stylus, and nodded. "Huh. Apparently, it's also the name of a philosopher. And it's not Hermos, by the way. It's Hermocrates."

Danny folded his arms. "I'm telling you – they're dragons that turned into knights. Green, blue, and red. The green one had lost an eye. And the guy's name was Her_mos_."

Sam stepped up in front of him, getting his attention. "Is this something you saw while you were – " She swallowed, glancing away for just a moment, unable to finish the question.

Danny laid his hands on her shoulders. "Sam, I'm okay. Really. And yeah, I must have. I . . . I don't really remember anything in particular, like I'd participated in something or like I'd watched a movie, but . . . have you . . . ever thought about a book you've not read in years, and the whole thing won't come to you, but you can remember little bits and pieces of it, even if you almost don't remember _actually_ reading it?" Sam nodded, as did Tucker – reluctantly. Jazz gave him almost a sheepish grin as she shook her head. Then again, that didn't surprise him. His sister had their mother's photographic memory. She could remember things from when she was two.

Tucker went back to the article on his PDA, and he frowned again as he read further down. "Um . . . guys, this says it's a metal. And they're describing it as a reddish color, or gold, or even amber."

Jazz nodded. "We noticed that, too. And it's been linked to copper . . . but, remember, copper turns green when it oxidizes and corrodes over time to form a layer of copper carbonate."

"The article says it was a mythical substance even in Crit- . . . " Sam glanced at Danny. "In the time of Plato and the others. Maybe they had the colors wrong, and what they were 'remembering' as metal was another, more crystalline mineral. And the misnomer, calling it a metal, has since led to the thought that it was some kind of copper or brass alloy."

Danny thought about it. "Yeah . . . that makes sense. So . . . you think this . . . 'orichalcum' stuff has something to do with that ectoranium chip you found in the street?"

Jazz rolled her eyes at him. "Hel_lo_? 'Ectoranium, known in antiquity as _orichalcum_ . . .' Ring a bell?"

Danny winced, remembering that detail of their parent's lecture on the stuff now that she brought it up. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I get it. Orichalcum equals ectoranium equals anti-ghost-element-as-old-as-Atlanti-!" He choked suddenly, eyes going wide. "Atlantis was real . . . "

Sam shrugged. "One does kinda suggest the other."

"No, no! I mean, I-I've seen it!"

"Be serious!" Tucker demanded.

"I am being serious, Tuck! I've been there! Well . . . sort of. A part of it, anyway. There was a massive fountain in the middle of these . . . these . . . gardens, like you'd find on the grounds of European manors. I . . . I want to say they were the gardens in front of the royal palace. See, what happened was, there was a sound like an earthquake, and this _huge_ piece of land, like a small island, rose up out of the water to hover in mid-air maybe a mile or so from another island that had a temple on it, covered in images of snakes."

Tucker shivered. "Man, I'm with Indiana Jones – I hate snakes." Sam elbowed him.

Jazz gasped. "Earthquake? Part of Atlantis rose up from the ocean?" She looked at Sam. "Remember what my mom told us in that email? About the tsunami that almost wiped out the east coast but didn't? Didn't that originate somewhere in the neighborhood of where Atlantis was believed to have been?"

"Yeah! Wow . . . and I'll bet if anyone knows what caused it, it's our government." Sam snorted. "It'll be interesting to see what kind of dumb-ass fairy tale they come up with to explain away _this_ one."

Tucker was still eyeing Danny. "So . . . seriously, dude? You saw a piece of Atlantis come up out of the ocean? Is it still there?"

Danny shook his head, his voice growing hesitant as he fought to recall. "There was some kind of massive battle. I . . . I . . . remember being . . . I was inside of something. I was seeing the island from inside of whatever it was that held me. There were . . . all these . . . other monsters attacking, but the beast I was in was . . . _totally_ owning them. I . . . I-I remember . . . I'd . . . given up. There was no hope left, no . . . no light at all." Danny shivered. "There was only this . . . terrible, crushing darkness. But . . . then a . . . a voice started to . . . to call out. I couldn't understand him – I don't know what language he was speaking, like Chinese or Japanese or _something_ – but he . . . I think he was . . . trying to encourage . . . um, us? Wait . . . yeah, 'us'! It wasn't just me! There were other people in there with me – hundreds, thousands, maybe millions! But this one guy started calling out to everyone. He had a really powerful voice, a lot of courage and strength in it, and it gave me hope. I'd – " Danny felt his face flush with shame, and he turned a little away from them. "I'd . . . I'd actually forgotten you guys – or, well, any good times we've had together. All I could remember, all I could focus on, was how I'd disappointed you, and endangered you over and over again . . . " Danny looked over his sister and two closest friends, though he found his eyes lingering longest on Sam.

Jazz set down the heavy books she'd been carrying and threw her arms around him, tears in her eyes. "Danny . . . "

Tucker gave him a soft chuck on the arm. "C'mon, man. You know we always have your back, no matter what."

Sam's eyes looked a bit wet. "Yeah. Always." With his sister embracing him, Sam settled for squeezing a hand.

Danny wrapped his arms tightly around his sister, squeezing back on Sam's hand and nodding at Tucker. "Yeah. Yeah, guys, you sure do. I really don't know what I'd have ever done without you."

Tucker smirked, his words breaking up the mood before it got too syrupy. "Probably be sitting in a cage in the Ghost Zone with a sign over your head. 'Ghost Child, property of Skulker. Do not feed the animals.' "

Danny snickered, as did Sam, though Jazz pulled back to throw Tucker a glare. "Watch it, buster. That's my little brother you're talking about."

Danny groaned. "Jazz, would you _please_ stop calling me that!"

Jazz looked at him, then smirked. "Huh? Okay . . . baby brother."

Danny groaned again, louder this time, adding an eye roll for good measure. His gaze fell on the books on his desk as he did so, and he turned to read the spines. "_Magic and Astrology of Renaissance Europe_ . . . _Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn_ . . . ? What, this your new idea of light reading?"

Jazz threw him her best annoyed, "I know more than you" big-sister glower. "Hardly. You know this Goth stuff isn't normally my genre. No offense," she added, glancing at Sam.

"Hey," Sam said with an amicable shrug, "Goth's not for everyone."

"Especially you," Tucker added with a snicker as he glanced Jazz up and down, making a show of taking in her preppy clothes.

Jazz threw him another glare, then turned back to Danny. "I had Mom draw the circle-thing she and Dad saw those ogre-guys appear out of and email it to us while we were at Skulk and Lurk."

"Which is why you took your laptop," Danny observed, glancing at Sam.

"Exactly." Sam turned and called up her email, and paused. "Oh . . . cool! Looks like I have an email from Anzu."

"Who?" Danny swallowed down a pang of jealousy almost before he recognized it for what it was.

"Friend of mine from Japan. A penpal I've been writing since third grade. I'll read it later."

"Female," Tucker clarified with a lewd grin.

Danny grimaced at him. "Yeah, Tuck. Kinda guessed that part."

Sam threw them both a scathing glance but otherwise ignored them. With a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, she brought up a scan of a hand-drawn . . . okay, not a pentagram – it had six points – but not any kind of "star" or other design that Danny had ever seen before, though it had a distinctly "magic symbol" look to it, especially with the double-ring surrounding the six-point star-thing, a series of weird characters filling the space between circles. Except for the series of glyphs, it was the same design as the one on the foreheads of all the monsters, including Dark Magician.

"It's called a unicursal hexagram," Jazz offered. "It was created by members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical order founded in the late 1880's."

"One of the books you got," Danny realized, glancing briefly at the tomes. Jazz nodded.

Tucker pointed to the ring of glyphs in the picture. "What about these?"

"It's a written language called Enochian." Sam pulled a few pieces of paper from a pocket of the tote and unfolded them, holding them up for the others to see. The top one was the scan of the symbol printed on copy paper, with a letter of the English alphabet handwritten above each foreign character. "It reads 'oreichalcos' twice around the ring . . . which is what you said right before you passed out on us last night." Sam looked at Danny.

"Enochian . . . " Danny reached for the page to look at more closely.

Sam handed it over, retaining the second. "The Enochian alphabet first showed up in the 16th century. There was a court magician and astrologer named Dr. John Dee and his 'associate' – " She made air quotes around the paper in her hands. " – Sir Edward Kelley who claimed that angels gave it to them."

"Here, lemmee see that." Tucker took the second paper from her. It appeared to be a printed page from a website, with a very brief introduction at the top, followed by the alphabet itself with the English equivalents marked below the characters. " 'The alphabet is used in the practice of Enochian Magic on Enochian Calls or Keys, which are used to call angels.' " Tucker snorted. "Well, it called _something_ last night. A lot of somethings."

Jazz laid a hand on the books on the desk. "Sam and I had just stumbled across that language and were starting to look up more on it when we decided it was past time to get dinner."

"Mom made spaghetti," Danny offered. "There's plenty left over."

He swallowed a laugh as Jazz winced. "With or without franks," she wanted to know.

"With, but don't worry. They're not haunted."

Danny, Jazz and even Tucker, who had gotten the story at dinner, wound up snickering at the look on Sam's face.

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!

The quoted material and other details come from real websites. The information on orichalcum does come from a Wikipedia article on the subject (http:/ . org/ wiki/ Orichalcum). The identities of the dragons/knights/politicians-and-a-philosopher come from the Wikipedia article on Atlantis. Admittedly, I'm guessing on the "Hermos = Hermocrates" bit, but considering the other two, it makes sense to me. "Magic and Astrology of Renaissance Europe" is not a real book, but "Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn" is, as was – and to an extent, still is, apparently – the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which I discovered from a link about the unicursal hexagram, which in turn came from a YGO-related article, all also on Wikipedia ( http:/ . org/ wiki/ Rafael_(Yu-Gi-Oh!) to start with, and yes, the "underscore-parenthesis-Yu-Gi-Oh!-parenthesis" _is_ part of the web address if you try to look it up yourself). That article also mentions that the language written within the double-ring of the seal's border is Enochian. Yes, the Orichalcos Seal really does read "oreichalcos" twice around in Enochian. Googling the language, I came across the website Omniglot, which gives the full alphabet and which the intro talking about Dr. Dee and Sir Kelley comes from (http:/ . com/ writing/ ).

((/end uber-fangeek))


	7. Chapter 6 Waiting

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 6 – Waiting

Anzu drummed her fingers on the surface of the hotel room desk, silently trying to convince herself to wait another ten minutes – five at least! – before checking her email yet again. After everything the group had been through, everyone was looking forward to a very normal vacation, and Anzu knew that this was probably her only chance to get to meet her friend in person. And the wait, not knowing if this would work out, if it was a good time on such short notice, was making her antsy. She shifted in the chair to look out from her corner to study the rest of the room.

Never mind the fact that she had already memorized every detail of every piece of furniture in there.

Rather than attempt to sleep on the carrier and risk motion sickness by morning, the group decided to stay awake and take off for the mainland as soon as Kaiba's helicopter was ready to go. Fubeta and Raphael were both seasoned travelers and able to catch sufficient naps, even on the still-choppy water, so they felt safe to pilot the chopper at such an early hour of the morning. The rest wound up napping on the benches and even floor of the helicopter's belly. They had reached Gary, Indiana, about a half-hour after dawn to find that Kaiba had already booked a pair of suites – one for himself, his brother, and his assistants, the other for "the geek squad" – at a high-end hotel so they could all go straight to sleep in proper, unmoving beds before Kaiba had to be at his first meeting late that afternoon.

She marveled at what Kaiba had given them. Even by American standards, she understood it to be sizeable, which meant _huge_ to a Japanese – two bedrooms, one off either side of a common room that sported two couches, a kitchenette, and a business desk in a back corner. A spacious bathroom completed the setup. She sighed as she found herself staring at the enormous – and empty – closet by the front door. She and her friends had lost all of their luggage two days prior, forced to leave it behind when their train had separated, then derailed. Anzu grimaced, trying not to think about the clothes she had been wearing for too long now. She had taken a quick shower in the cramped quarters of the carrier the night before and a luxurious bath an hour ago using the hotel's complimentary supplies, but both times she had to put back on her old clothes. She had considered washing them – at least her delicates – in the bath with her, but then she would have had to wait for them to dry, and she could not bring herself not to wear them, left hanging in the bathroom, when she was sharing quarters with four guys. Especially considering two of those were Jonouchi and Honda. She rolled her eyes at the thought of the immature talk she would have had to endure . . . and grinned at the adorable blush she was sure would have been painted across poor Yugi's cheeks. She stopped herself before her mind could fully wonder what Other-Yugi's reaction would have been, aborting a blush of her own before it could blossom. Instead, she focused on the fourth male in the suite.

Yugi had invited Raphael to stay with them, at least until he decided what he was going to do. He sat now chatting with Yugi, who was on the sofa next to him, opposite the other boys. Anzu wondered how they could hear each other over the ravenous noises of their suitemates. The group had been awakened about two hours ago by a knock on the door. One of the hotel employees had delivered a laptop, courtesy of Kaiba Corporation. He even set it up and got it hooked to the internet connection, also active on Kaiba's bill. It was then that Honda had realized that anything they did in relation to their room would be on Kaiba's bill, and Jonouchi had ordered in brunch enough to feed ten.

Anzu met Raphael's eye by accident and looked away before she could catch herself, then sighed. Now that he was no longer an enemy, Raphael had proven to be a very decent fellow, courteous and deferential, though to get more than three words out of him at a time seemed to be a challenge. Jonouchi and Honda were still a little unsure of him, but he had somehow managed to earn Yugi's respect – both Yugis, in fact, and gaining Other-Yugi's genuine regard was a hard-won award, so Anzu had long decided that he was okay in her book.

Anzu looked at them again to find Raphael occupying himself with a bagel and cup of coffee, but Yugi was looking at her, one hand resting subconsciously on the top of the Puzzle in his lap.

"Any word from your friend yet?"

If the look in his eye, the way he held himself even lounged back on the couch, had not been enough for Anzu to tell, his voice cinched it for her – his word choice, the slightly deeper and stronger tone. It was the _other_ Yugi speaking to her.

She managed to keep herself from looking away too quickly, but she could not help the blush she felt spread across her cheekbones. Only practice kept her voice steady. "Ah . . . not yet. Not as of a few minutes ago, anyway. Let me check again." She brushed her finger back and forth across the little mouse pad on the laptop, waking it up once more, then refreshed the browser - her email account was through an online site. A soft gasp escaped her as she saw that she did indeed finally have an email from Sam. "Yes! Here we go!"

Anzu heard Jonouchi swallow his mouthful of ham-and-egg burrito before turning over his shoulder and speaking up, for which she was grateful. "Well, ya gonna read it?"

Anzu nodded, shifting in her chair so she could be better heard. " 'Anzu! Great to hear from you. I'm glad – '?"

"Eh?" Honda interrupted her. "I thought you said this is an American friend. Or are you translating?"

Anzu rolled her eyes. "No, I'm not translating. I told you last night – Sam and I have been talking for some years now. Originally, it was part of a class project, to start writing back and forth with the kids from a class in America to help us with our English. Sam and I really hit it off, so we've kept in touch all this time. She even learned Japanese and got a computer program that helps her write emails in kana and kanji. See?" She shifted the laptop to show them.

Honda stood up and leaned over the sofa to see better, then nodded. "Cool!"

"Yeah! I've never talked to her in person, but her written Japanese is really, really good." Anzu turned the laptop once again and continued. " 'Great to hear from you. I'm glad you're okay. I'm sure by now you've heard about the crazy stuff that went down a few nights ago – well, _days_ for you, if I'm not mistaken. You must have, if not experienced it! It was worldwide, so I'm sure things went on in Japan, too. And the stuff from yesterday! You've heard about the tsunami that almost hit our east coast, right? Insane! And that's even compared to the stuff we're _used_ to here in . . . _Amichi Pakku_.' " Anzu still was not sure how to read the katakana aloud so that she was pronouncing the city's name in proper American English.

She could hear the frown of concern in Other-Yugi's voice as he interrupted her. "Things they're used to?" Anzu had told her friends on and off over the past few years about some of the strange things Sam had recounted via email. She wondered that Other-Yugi had not heard any of it from his partner.

Jonouchi shrugged, seeming to think nothing of that. "Apparently, they get a lotta paranormal activity around their city."

Honda laughed. " 'Paranormal.' Gee, that's a big word for you."

Jonouchi cuffed the back of his head. "Shut up!"

A small, fond grin ghosted across Other-Yugi's lips, his only reaction to his friends' antics, his attention otherwise still focused on Anzu. He started to ask more, but Raphael's soft voice next to him cut him off.

"_Amity Park_ . . . ?" The big man was staring at the table as if trying to remember something, and his more American-like pronunciation of the words surprised Anzu. He seemed unaware of having spoken aloud, and Other-Yugi's voice startled him.

"Raphael? What is it?"

Raphael shook his head. "Nothing, Pharaoh. Sorry." His eyes shifted to Anzu. "Please continue."

Anzu studied him a moment, then nodded, turning back to the screen. " 'Anyway, yeah, I'd love to see you! And your friends too, of course! My friends and I are kinda busy with some stuff, but since you guys are in the area, I'm sure we can make time for a visit! When will you be in town? Write back soon. I'll keep my laptop with me, or you can send me a text on my cell phone.' " Anzu sat back, glancing over her shoulder. "And she lists her phone number. Except . . . I don't have _my_ cell phone anymore, and I'm not sure my service would let me call an international number anyway."

Jonouchi shrugged. "So email her back. Hell, if she _just_ sent that to you, you might be able to get her on an IM, even. Can you download your IM onto that laptop?"

"Ah . . . yeah, actually. Probably. I don't know why not. Um . . . so long as Kaiba-kun says it's okay, of course."

Jonouchi waved a dismissive hand. "Download it, talk to her, uninstall . . . he'll never know."

Anzu rolled her eyes at him, but just said, "Let me email her back first, see if she's even still on." She turned, hit Reply near the top of the browser screen, and started typing.

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	8. Chapter 7 True Heart

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 7 – True Heart

The embodied Puzzle-spirit stood to approach the little desk in the corner, his _aibou_ manifested by his side and following, as Anzu typed her reply to her friend's email, but he paused when he heard a knock on the door. He turned as Raphael silently stood and crossed the room to answer it and suppressed a frown, thinking the big man did that _too_ automatically, like he was so used to service that he did not think twice about it. It made him wonder else Dartz had taught the proud and silent man. Then, Raphael opened the door, and the spirit had to press his lips against a small grin at the sight.

Next to the tall and very _broad_-shouldered Raphael, even Kaiba looked a little dwarfed and diminished. The spirit had to look away for a moment to hide his amusement and regain his composure before his rival-friend might notice and take offense.

Kaiba graced Raphael with a slight nod of acknowledgement before stepping into the room and sweeping the group with a glance that took in everything in an instant, eyes lingering for a moment on the spread of food on the coffee table, then automatically going to Jonouchi, a wry smirk quirking his lips. "I see you've discovered the room service."

Completely unabashed, Jonouchi beamed as he stood to meet Kaiba. "Hell, yeah! Thanks, Kaiba – this is great! We owe ya, man. Seriously!"

Honda nodded, pushing to his feet next to Jonouchi. "And not just the food, but the rooms. Thank you." More restrained but just as earnest, he gave Kaiba a traditional bow of appreciation.

Jonouchi sobered at that and bowed as well, as did Raphael. Anzu stood and bowed with a murmur of thanks, and even Yugi bowed and thanked Kaiba, looking sheepish as he remembered after the fact that the other could neither see nor hear him. With everyone else doing so, the spirit gave him a very small bow as well.

Kaiba had looked ready to snap off one of his curt one-liners, especially at Jonouchi's enthusiastic and well-meaning but rather irreverent gratitude, but the sudden heartfelt formality seemed to catch him off-guard. He recovered an instant later and waved them off, giving the socially-common response phrase instead. "Think nothing of it."

Mokuba, slipping in behind his brother and spotting the coffee table, broke the moment a heartbeat later. "Geez, Jonouchi! Tell me that isn't all _yours_!"

Jonouchi grinned and plopped back down on the sofa. "Hey, Mokuba. Nah . . . just this much." He indicated a little over two-thirds of the food. "I'm willing to share the rest."

Honda smacked him upside the head. "Moron."

The spirit allowed a small grin to ghost across his face once again at his friends' antics before turning his attention to Kaiba, who had crossed the room to stop before him, pausing to study him. The spirit folded his arms and peered up at the much-taller man, letting the tilt of his head, the poise of his stance, the look in his eye tell his oft-opponent what he wanted to know, and gave a nod of greeting. "Kaiba."

Kaiba nodded in return. For those who knew what to look for, it was easy to tell Mutou Yugi himself from the spirit who frequently possessed his body. "Yugi."

Anzu sat back down, brushing her hand along the top of the laptop on the desk. "Thank you for the use of this laptop, too, Kaiba-kun. I've heard back from my friend, Sam, by the way. I wanted to ask you – is it okay if I download an IM program onto it, at least long enough to talk to her and set up a meeting with her?"

Kaiba looked at her, not physically shrugging though the sentiment could be seen in his eyes. "It's yours. Do with it what you will. Actually, technically – " He looked at the spirit. " – it's yours . . . and so is this." He reached into an inner chest pocket of his sweeping, white coat, pulled out something, and tossed it at the spirit.

Without flinching, the spirit easily caught it one-handed, a frown of confusion creasing his brow as he looked it over, then flipped it open.

-_A-a wallet?_- Yugi murmured as he peered over the spirit's shoulder. -_Hey! That's my school ID! And government-issue ID. A-and . . . a Kaiba Corp _employee_ card?_-

-_And a credit card,_- the spirit thought back, nodding mentally. With a thumb, he pulled the card free of its pocket in the wallet – it was a company credit card, issued by VISA, with the words "Kaiba Corporation" and "Yugi Mutou" in sharply-embossed, English-alphabet gold lettering. He looked up at Kaiba, a wry grin tugging at his lips. "I'm your employee now, am I?"

Kaiba visibly managed to not roll his eyes. "Don't let it go to your head. It's just the easiest way to get you people out of my hair for now." He folded his arms and fixed the spirit with a typical half-glare. "Unless I'm mistaken, your wallet and everything in it is soaking at the bottom of a lake on the edge of Death Valley – hn, it's a wonder you didn't lose your Deck while you were at it." The spirit stiffened, lips pressing to a thin line at the reminder of that incident, but he didn't say anything and Kaiba continued. "As you pointed out last night, none of you have any money. You have no clothes or anything else, either."

"Have Hopkins or Otogi been able to recover your luggage yet?" Mokuba interjected. He had settled on the couch opposite Honda and Jonouchi, sitting where the spirit had been.

The spirit shook his head. "We don't know. We've not talked to them since yesterday evening before getting to the aircraft carrier."

Jonouchi blew out a frustrated breath. "But see, here's the thing. They probably _have_ found the half of the train me an' Honda got left behind on – that wouldn't be too hard; just follow the tracks out from where we started – but see . . . that don't mean they'll actually be able to get our luggage."

Honda nodded. "Most likely, the local authorities will have gotten there before they did, and probably will have confiscated all our stuff."

Anzu shifted uneasily in her seat. "I just hope that somehow Otogi-kun and Hopkins-_kyouju_ DO get there before anyone else does . . ."

- _. . . or else _we_ might get blamed for what happened to the train_,- Yugi finished, eyes on his toes.

Mokuba, like everyone else but the spirit, couldn't hear Yugi, but his eyes went wide. "You guys said everyone but you disappeared off the train before Haga and Ryuuzaki made their moves, right? If the authorities find only _your_ belongings and _your_ IDs . . . " He looked up at his brother.

Kaiba grunted, remaining focused on the spirit. "All the more reason to tie you to Kaiba Corp. If any inquiries are made, I'll hear of them . . . and deal with them." And from the tone of his voice, that ended discussion on that topic.

The spirit glanced at Honda and Jonouchi, and even Jonouchi's mouth snapped shut and he sank a bit lower behind the sofa, nodding, Honda looking thoughtful beside him. Next to the spirit, Anzu remained a bit tense, but he could see in her eyes that Kaiba's comment did indeed help put her mind at ease. Mokuba just beamed. Raphael's expression was unreadable as he stood in the corner by the door.

"If anyone needs to know," Kaiba continued after a moment, "you've been here on business for me personally, though you now have some time off, you and your assistants, or however you want to work that among yourselves. There's more than enough on that card to get clothes and other personal items, rent a car, get food and accommodations in Amity Park – everything you should need to keep you geeks out from underfoot for at least a week. I got your immediate identification cards replaced after we picked you up in Death Valley, Yugi, but I haven't gotten any passport replacements yet."

"Heh – means you guys still need Big-Brother's help to get home," Mokuba put in.

The spirit shook his head. "Kaiba, what you _have_ done has been more than generous. Thank you."

"Hn." A soft noise of acknowledgement, it was the closest Kaiba ever got to a 'you're welcome.' He pulled a cell phone from his jacket and held it out to the spirit. "My number and Isono's are already programmed in, and we have this number in ours. The plan includes international service, so you'll also be able to call and receive calls from anyone here – " He glanced at Anzu. " – including your friend."

The spirit gazed up at Kaiba for a moment, admittedly taken a little aback by the generosity. Granted, Kaiba was claiming that this was only to occupy them while he was taking care of his own business, but he really had gone above and beyond what was necessary. The spirit couldn't help but wonder – was this the "true Kaiba" they were seeing, in a sense? It had not been even two weeks yet since the spirit had defeated Kaiba high atop the Duel Tower on Alcatraz Island and challenged him to overcome the monsters of anger, hatred, and desire in his heart . . . and from what the spirit had seen since, Kaiba had done just that, or at least made a great deal of headway. True, he had railed vehemently at the spirit just the other day about "giving up his Duel Monsters championship crown to some nobody" when he found out the spirit had lost a Duel, and his partner's soul, but that had been an Orichalcos Duel – _against Raphael, as a matter of fact_, he thought as he glanced at the man by the door – and so the circumstances were unusual at best and, with tensions and emotions already high for Kaiba with losing his very company in stocks right out from under his feet, he could be more than forgiven his harsh words in that one instance. That aside, Kaiba was the same on the surface, still abrasive and aloof and going to do things _his_ way, but there seemed to be something fundamentally different in his eyes, a subtle shift in his character that the spirit's heart was gladdened to see.

The spirit accepted the cell phone, clipping the holder onto the belt above his Deck case, and pushed the wallet into a back pocket. "Again, thank you, Kaiba. I'm in your debt – we all are."

Unusually sober, Jonouchi nodded. "Yeah, an' I doubt any of us could ever repay you either. Even all of us together . . . " And he looked like he genuinely wished he could, mindful and truly grateful for Kaiba's help. The others nodded in agreement.

Kaiba turned to him, paused, and let a small challenging smirk play across his face as if a thought just then occurred to him. "You never could," he agreed, "but he will." He thumbed over his shoulder at the spirit, then turned that challenging smirk on him.

The spirit startled. "Me?" Regardless of _which_ soul he was referring to, Kaiba had to know that Mutou Yugi did not have that kind of money. And next to him, Yugi paled, even for a disembodied soul, at the same thought.

Kaiba shifted to face him once more, the challenge in his smirk now full-force. "Yes, with a Duel."

The spirit swallowed a grimace. _Then again, perhaps I was wrong after all_. This sounded a little close to the 'duel me, duel me' mantra from Battle City.

Yugi shook his head. -_Maybe not, Other-Me. Look at his eyes_.-

Kaiba explained, "If everything goes as I'm planning with the meetings over the next week, I'll be able to get everything back on track for my Kaiba-Land parks, which includes opening Kaiba-Land California in about two weeks. And as a grand finale to the opening ceremonies, a Duel between the owner and Kaiba Corp's president, and the current King of Games." Kaiba cocked his head slightly as if to say 'what do you think?'

The spirit felt the slow grin spread across his face. His _aibou_ was right. There was no anger or hatred in Kaiba's eyes, not like there had always been in the past. Challenge, yes, and a desire to play, even to win, but the spirit didn't sense a burning _need _to win, one that would cloud his judgment. If anything, this was a business move for the attention it would garner . . . and it was something Kaiba personally wanted because, the spirit thought he could read in the other's eyes, it was something he would . . . _enjoy_. He glanced at Mokuba to double-check his hunch, and the huge grin on the boy's face told him he was right.

The spirit refocused on Kaiba. "Another Duel?" He allowed a challenging smirk of his own to cross his face, testing his rival-friend. "And when I beat you – again – will you still be willing to take us all home?"

"Hn, don't jinx yourself, Yugi – your luck's bound to run out sooner or later." Rather than be angry at the spirit's assumption of victory over him, however, Kaiba's smirky grin only widened slightly, the light of challenge brightening just a little in his eyes at the spirit's acceptance. He nodded, all business despite his eagerness for the Duel. "This isn't a tournament, Yugi – it's essentially a publicity stunt. Regardless of the outcome, you'll all be going home afterwards." He glanced around the room, then refocused on the spirit, his eyes a little more serious but still devoid of some of the ugly things they used to hold when the two of them faced and talked about Dueling. "I never have gotten the rematch with you that I truly wanted. Not really. This time . . . no tricks, no traps, no souls or lives on the line, no past to be gained or lost. Just you, me, and our Decks."

"And no God Cards." There was no way the spirit was playing the Gods against anyone if he didn't have to, especially not in what amounted to a _casual_ game.

Kaiba grimaced a little, but he looked neither overly surprised nor upset by that – if anything, he might have been faintly relieved, though that may just have been the spirit's imagination. "I'll let _you_ make that announcement. People will expect you to play the God Cards and, if you don't, they'll think I made you leave them out of your Deck to better my own chances unless they hear it from you yourself." He held out a hand. "We have a deal, then?"

The spirit nodded, unable to keep the grin of anticipation from his face as he took the hand in a Duelist's clasp. "You're on, Kaiba!" He heard his friends cheer around him.

Kaiba's smirk slid into something of a grin as well – slightly predatory but there, and genuine, nonetheless – as he gripped the spirit's hand. "Prepare yourself, Yugi. I _do_ intend to win."

"I'd be disappointed with anything less, Kaiba."

Kaiba made a sound that might have been a low chuckle, then pulled back, turning for the door. "So, you geeks have what you need to entertain yourselves for a while, and I have a meeting to prepare for. Mokuba . . . "

"Coming, Big-Brother!" Mokuba hopped up, snatching a donut before darting to follow as Raphael quietly played doorman.

Raphael closed the door behind the brothers, and Jonouchi looked at the spirit. "Ah . . . not for nothin' but . . . are we _sure_ that's our Kaiba an' not some pod-person-alien replacement?"

"Yeah," Honda agreed. "I mean, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but since when has Kaiba ever done anything to really help anyone, let alone _us_? Except himself and Mokuba, I mean."

Yugi grinned, looking at the spirit with pride. -_Since you helped him smash the last of the darkness from his heart in that last Duel you two fought during the finals_.-

The spirit nodded. "Don't discount the lessons Kaiba learned from Battle City. He's come a long way, farther than maybe you realize." At that, both Jonouchi and Honda relented with thoughtful nods.

An odd, electronic twitter from the laptop behind him startled the spirit just then, followed by Anzu's hitch of breath. "Oh, good, it did work," he heard her mutter. He turned to look.

"What worked?" Jonouchi got up from the sofa and approached, Honda on his heels.

The spirit recognized the windows for an IM program on the laptop's screen – it was the same one Yugi used. An "Offline Messages" window gave the name and the text "Hey! Here when you are." in English.

Anzu clicked the Reply button, which opened a chat window, and started typing.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Hi! Wow, neither of us is up at some cruel hour to talk. Imagine that._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Yeah, imagine. So . . . you guys are in the neighborhood, huh? What's going on? You said you're stateside for business or something?_

The spirit, following the English text well enough, watched Anzu hesitate with a grimace, glancing around at her friends, before replying.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Um . . . or something. It's kind of hard to explain. I've told you about our friend, Kaiba? We're here with him. He's got business here and in Chicago to maybe build a KaibaLand somewhere in the neighborhood. We're here because we were helping with some other stuff . . . but he's going to be in meetings now for the next several days, which leaves the rest of us free._

There was a brief pause before Sam replied.

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ You're here with Kaiba? Since when did he start talking to you enough to let you travel with him?_

_Since we really didn't give him a choice_, the spirit thought with a wry grin tugging at his lips.

Anzu hesitated again, looking up at the spirit in speculation. She got a hint of a grin on her face, somewhere between apology and wry amusement, before turning again to type.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Since Yugi started working for him. Recent development, long story... Anyway, Kaiba needed Yugi along, and Yugi asked me and Honda and Jou to come too. Kaiba went ahead and let us._

Beside him, the spirit heard Jonouchi snort. " 'Let us' my butt."

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Oh . . . well, that's cool, though! So, when do you think you might be in Amity Park, then? I can suggest some really nice hotels depending on your price range. _

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Well, money's not really an issue. _["Wow, I _never_ thought I'd get to say something like _that_," Anzu marveled aloud as she typed.]_ Yugi has a company credit card that the whole trip is going on, so . . . wherever you think would be best, I guess._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ In that case, there's the Garnier Hotel. It overlooks the shore of Lake Michigan – great view! I can look up the address and phone number so you can Google directions and call for a reservation. When do you guys think you might be in the neighborhood?_

Anzu looked up at the others. "What do you think?" The question was directed mostly at the spirit.

The spirit frowned in thought. "I can't imagine it would take long to drive up there…"

Raphael stepped closer, finally participating again. "It's not far. A few hours at most. You might want to replace clothes and other supplies first, though."

"And transportation," Honda put in. "We'll have to get a taxi or something, since none of us drive."

"Even if we did," the spirit agreed with a nod, "none of us have licenses to drive in America." In any case, he _guessed_ that would be a separate permission, since Americans drove on the wrong side of the road to begin with.

"I have one," Raphael put in.

"Cool!" Jonouchi crowed. "That settles it, then. We check outta here, hit a department store, get a rental car, and _bang_, we can be in Amity Park in time for dinner!"

Anzu groaned. "Jonouchi, you just ate a whole huge meal! How can you be thinking about food again already?"

"Hollow leg," Honda put in before Jonouchi could respond, lightly kicking one of Jonouchi's shins. Jonouchi gave him a mock growl, and the two went down in a tangle, wrestling over the "insult."

-_Actually . . . dinner might be a good setting to meet Anzu's friends_,- Yugi suggested after fondly shaking his head at his two friends. -_That way, it's a neutral meeting ground and no one is invading the other's personal space_.- The spirit nodded and repeated the suggestion for the others.

"That's true…" Anzu conceded, and turned to type once more.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Sounds like we can be in there in time for dinner. Maybe we can meet you guys somewhere?_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Sure! There's a place just a few blocks from there, a restaurant called The Nasty Burger. _[_Burgers! Real, American-made burgers!_ the spirit "heard" his _aibou_'s heart crow gleefully, and he swallowed a chuckle.]_ Yeah, I know, weird name for a burger joint – I hear it _used _to be The Tasty Burger when it first opened, but someone changed a letter and the name just stuck. But it really is a great place. They serve all kinds of stuff – including really good vegan fare if any of your friends are vegetarians._

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Sure, that sounds great. How about I call you when we get to our hotel, and we can arrange a time, then?_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Yeah, that'll work. I'll be bringing some friends, if that's okay? Danny, Tucker, and Danny's sister Jazz._

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Heh, why not? I'm bringing four myself._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Four? Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda…?_

There was a brief pause as Anzu glanced up at Raphael, giving him a small grin. Raphael gazed back stoically, though the spirit could read the question in his eyes.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ And Raphael. He's a friend of ours who we've just met since getting to America. He's been traveling with us, helping us out, and he's gonna play taxi driver, so…_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Gotcha. Don't want to leave anyone out, right? Anyway . . . well, cool! Sounds like we'll be seeing each other in just a few hours then! I can't wait!_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Neither can I! My friends and I have really been needing a vacation, so we're all really excited. Well, I guess I should go so we can check out and get on our way. We have a few stops we need to make before we get on the road._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ No problem. My friends and I have some things we need to do too. I'll have my cell phone on me, and I already emailed you my number so . . . Talk to you later?_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Yeah. In person, even! I can't wait! Later!_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Jaa mata, Anzu-chan!_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Jaa ato de, Sam-chan!_

With that, Anzu closed out of the program and turned to her friends, beaming. "Well, what're we waiting for?"

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!


	9. Chapter 8 Cat and Mouse

Disclaimer – "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. "Danny Phantom" belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Jumping at Shadows"  
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 8 – Cat and Mouse

Sam jogged up the short front stairs to the door of FentonWorks, glad to finally be back. Her parents had insisted that she join them for some stupid charity function at the country club that morning, and it had been well after noon before she had managed to escape. Beside her, Tucker panted a little as she rang the doorbell, and she shook her head at him. "Geez, Tucker, with all the running around we do ghost-hunting, I'd think you'd be in better shape." She shifted the strap of her laptop tote on her shoulder.

Tucker grimaced and patted the thigh-pockets of his cargo pants, which she knew to be full of all manner of electronic gadgetry. "Techno-geek, not marathon runner! It's farther from my house to Danny's than we usually have to go when we're chasing ghosts!" He leaned forward, partly crouched with his hands braced on his knees, head bent over as he caught his breath.

Sam wondered why his beret didn't fall off. "Well, the ghosts just all got about three times taller, which means we _could_ be covering, like, six times the distance. I'm not saying 'marathon runner' here, but it wouldn't hurt to get into _some_ kind of better shape."

Before Tucker could pull his head up for a proper retort, Danny answered the door. "Hey, guys. C'mon in." He stepped back as they entered.

Mr. Fenton's voice bellowed up from the basement just then. "Hey, Danny, Jazz! Come on down to the lab! Your mother and I want to show you something."

Danny winced, but Sam could only grin in amusement at the excited tone in Mr. Fenton's voice. He was like a big kid sometimes – okay, most times. Sam adored Danny's parents and wished yet again that her own could be more like them.

"Um . . . c-coming, Dad!" Danny yelled back, then waved for Jazz's attention. His sister was in the living room with headphones on going through some kind of mock-fight routine with one of the Fenton ghost-fighting weapons as a sort of cardio workout.

Tucker turned from grimacing at Jazz's self-imposed torture, as Sam remembered him calling it once, to glare at Sam for a moment. "Not. A. Word." Sam just rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in surrender, leaving Danny to glance in confusion between the two of them before shaking his head and leading the way as Jazz put down her equipment to follow.

The foursome trouped down the stairs into the basement laboratory to find the senior Fentons on either side of one of the workbenches. Amid the usual barely-identifiable scientific and engineering detritus were six large, wacky helmets that looked like they had been swiped from the set of some 1950's sci-fi movie set. But then, so did a _lot_ of what they built. Four of the helmets were the same eye-searing orange as Mr. Fenton's hazmat suit, with the remaining two matching Mrs. Fenton's blue.

Danny visibly resisted the urge to shrink back from what was obviously his parents' latest invention. "Um, I'm . . . almost afraid to ask, but . . . what are those?"

Mr. Fenton beamed, completely oblivious to his son's discomfort. "These, son, are the Fenton Anti-Invisibility Ecto-Brain-Buckets. They pick up the ecto-vibrations of a ghost's energy, allowing the wearer to see the invisible and hear the inaudible!"

In contrast to her husband's enthusiasm, Mrs. Fenton frowned. "Those really tall, unusual ghosts have appeared and disappeared on us without a trace twice in a week, and those Tolkien-esque ogre-ghosts vanished just about as easily. But they may still be around and we just can't see them, so your father and I built these helmets." Mrs. Fenton handed a helmet each to Danny and Jazz as she spoke. Sam couldn't help noting that Jazz got one of the blue helmets, no doubt to match her mother's. "Sam, Tucker, I'm glad you're here. We made one for each of you, too – just in case." She handed out two more orange helmets.

Tucker frowned in confusion, absently accepting his helmet as he studied Danny's. "Huh? But Danny doesn't need- OW!" He curled away as Sam dug her elbow into him, hard. Jazz, too, glared at him in warning. "Um, I mean . . . doesn't need one in orange. I think you should paint his blue like Mrs. Fenton's. It'd go better with his complexion!"

Mrs. Fenton thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "You know, I think you're right. You really do have such beautiful blue eyes, sweetie. The orange wouldn't go well at all."

"B-but – " Mr. Fenton started to protest. One look from his wife, however, and he relented, if unhappily.

Danny whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "Nice save, Tuck."

"Thanks," Tucker murmured back. Sam, however, was not nearly so ready to forgive him the near-slip-up. She saw Tucker glance her way, spot the glare she was still giving him, clear his throat, and change the subject. "So, uh . . . 'brain bucket,' huh?"

Mr. Fenton puffed up with pride. "Yep! It's a cool gamers' term for 'helmet.' Maddie, remember when we used to play some of those role-playing games back in college? Like that space-based one. What was it called?"

Mrs. Fenton looked wistful. "Galaxy 7 RPG . . . boy, I miss those days sometimes."

"Ecto-_Brain_-Bucket, huh?" Sam turned to Jazz with a whisper, a fond smirk twisting her lips as she teased. "Don't you have to _have_ a brain to put it in a bucket?"

Jazz frowned. "Hey, he may be a hopeless dork, and a complete spazz sometimes, but he's still my dad."

Hearing them, Danny sighed and whispered, "Never mind that." Louder, he told his parents, "These are really cool. We'll have to try them out later. Thanks! For now, though, we're gonna go upstairs, okay?" He gingerly replaced his helmet on the table.

"Okay. You kids have fun!" Mr. Fenton grinned and waved as the others returned their helmets to the table alongside Danny's and beat a hasty retreat.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Danny flopped for a moment on his bed, then sat back up and scooted over for Sam to sit down. He watched Tucker take his desk chair while his sister half-sat, half-leaned on the windowsill. She was the first to break the silence.

"Do you think those things _are_ still around?"

Danny shook his head. "I spent a good part of last night and again this morning sweeping the whole city _and_ the Ghost Zone, and I didn't see anything, either in human form or in ghost form. I even kept changing back and forth just in case, even though normally I can see invisible ghosts even in human form. Heck, I even went to a couple of the ghosts – Skulker and Frostbite – to see what _they_ could tell me."

He almost laughed at the look of surprise on Jazz's face, who was still learning the dynamics of her little brother's interactions with some of his adversaries and sometimes-as-needed tentative allies. "You went to _Skulker_! Doesn't he try to game-hunt you?"

Sam, too, looked less than amused as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Lemme guess – you two played tag for about ten minutes until you could get him to listen to you, and then he still wasn't of any help."

"Well, you're one for two," Danny allowed with a grin, remembering the game he'd played with one of his oldest ghost-acquaintances. "I had fun letting him chase me around, then I let him catch me so I _could_ get him to listen to-"

He flinched back a little, involuntarily, as Sam and Tucker both exploded at him. "YOU _LET_ SKULKER CATCH YOU?"

Danny threw up both hands to silence them from further ranting. "Hey! It's fine, guys, okay? I'm here now, aren't I? Yes, I let Skulker catch me – so easily even he knew I'd _let_ him do it. He wants a _real_ challenge, remember? He was pretty disgusted when he caught me, so he paused long enough to actually talk to me before he let me go."

Jazz nodded slowly. "Which you knew he would . . . "

"Exactly."

Sam was still glaring at him, but Tucker just shook his head and moved on. "So . . . Sam was right that you guys played Cat-and-Mouse, and _wrong_ that he wasn't any help?"

Danny nodded. "He's been in the Ghost Zone so he didn't see any of the monster manifestations, but he said he _did_ sense the same ancient-summoning-magic-whatever that the Box Ghost said he'd felt the other night, even from there in the Ghost Zone. I asked him about the Realm of Nightmares that the Box Ghost had mentioned too." Danny frowned thoughtfully. "Don't think I've ever seen Skulker quite like that before . . . I think even the faceplate of his _suit_ went pale!"

Sam grimaced. "That can't be a good sign. What did he say?"

"Well, he didn't know much, just that it's some kind of other dimension of shadows and dark energies, and that the ghosts don't go there. There are beings that live there, and they and the ghosts pretty much don't mingle. Ever. It's forbidden by . . . whatever code the ghosts live by, and there's not a ghost alive – erm, or whatever you'd call them – that'll break that truce, not even Walker who likes to make up his own rules. Apparently, none of the not-ghosts turned up in the Ghost Zone – not the other day and not a week ago – and I asked Skulker about that. He suggested I talk to Frostbite, which had been my next stop anyway – Skulker's domain was just closer." Danny shrugged.

"So . . . what did Frostbite have to say?" Jazz wanted to know.

Danny pulled a breath as he thought about what the great yeti-like ghost had told him. "The . . . beings of the Realm of Nightmares call themselves tulpas. And he thinks that they went to Earth but not the Ghost Zone because they were specifically summoned there. Frostbite's people have been studying the Realm a little on and off for some time, except that about a year and a half ago, they had to quit altogether because the Realm suddenly seemed to . . . wake up, I guess. It had been basically dormant for, well, millennia as far as Frostbite's data could tell, but all of a sudden it went active and has been ever since."

"Huh, I wonder what happened," Tucker mused.

Danny shrugged. "You got me."

Sam hunched over her knees. "So . . . now what? Sounds like we're back to Square One."

Jazz gave her a grin. "I could always give you one or two of the books we brought back from Skulk and Lurk to go through. I'm still working my way through _The Rites of Modern Occult Magic_."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks. Just what I want for my summer reading."

"Gotta beat the stuff Mr. Lancer wants us to have read by the time school starts," Tucker pointed out.

"Ugh, true," Sam agreed, then looked at Jazz with a wry, weary grin. "All right, you got a deal. Gimme. Besides, this _is_ more my thing than yours anyway."

Jazz shook her head with a small, fond smile of her own and slipped out to retrieve the books from her room.

Danny snickered, then stopped as a completely off-topic thought occurred to him. "Oh! Hey, Sam, did you ever read that email you got from your friend last night?"

Sam straightened. "Oh, that's right! I got an email from Anzu! No, I totally forgot about it." She pulled the laptop from her tote.

Danny shifted on the bed to peer over her shoulder as she signed into her online email. With her permission, he read the email with her, Tucker on her other side. If this Anzu really was Japanese, Danny thought she sure didn't "sound" like it, or at least she _wrote_ in really good English.

"She's _here_," he heard Sam gasp softly. "She's . . . she's going to be in Gary. . . "

Tucker pointed at the date/time stamp in the header of the email. "No, she already is. Probably got in early this morning. Huh . . . she's traveling with some friends for business but has a few days off and wants to come see you? How cool is that!" He leaned around over Sam's shoulder, grinning. "So . . . is she hot?"

"TUCKER!"

Danny was reading the names on the screen. Besides herself, this Anzu would be bringing three friends with her: Mutou Yugi, Jonouchi Katsuya, and Honda Hiroto. _Geez, that's a mouthful of names, isn't it? W-wait a minute…_ He would have to double-check them – he had a hard enough time remembering "easy" English names sometimes – but he was pretty sure he'd seen two of those names last night when he was reading about those Duel Monsters players out of Japan. Or maybe it was just coincidence – maybe those were fairly common names, like Dan Smith or John Green for Americans.

Sam stared at the screen, chewing at her lip. "It's . . . it's cool, yeah – it's great! – but . . . " She sighed. "Bad timing . . . "

"You're not thinking of telling her 'no,' are you!"

"Telling who 'no'?" Jazz asked as she re-entered the room with two books in hand.

Danny had been listening but thinking more about the names. Tucker's exclamation and Jazz's question pulled him back into the conversation. "Sam's penpal in Japan – the email she got last night? – she's here in the States. In Gary! Come on, Sam, this is a great opportunity! How many people get to meet their penpal from another country that they've been talking to for, what, eight years? Listen, if it's the not-ghosts – the tulpas, I guess they're called – you're worried about, they haven't shown up again in almost two days. And besides, things have been worldwide – both times around – so it's not like Anzu wouldn't know about what's going on, or be any safer _not_ coming here. You might as well." _And_, he thought to himself, _if her friends _are_ the same people as the ones I was reading about last night . . ._

Jazz was grinning. "Danny's got a point, Sam. I think you should go for it."

Sam nodded with a grin of her own. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Might as well!" She activated another program and started typing.

Danny and Tucker both gaped at the bizarre series of characters that began appearing across her screen in the new window. It was Tucker who found his voice first. "Whoa! When did you learn to write in Japanese?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Tuck, this is Sam we're talking about."

Sam just smirked at him. "I started teaching myself after Anzu and I got to be pretty good friends."

Jazz set the books on the desk and moved where she could see the screen as well. "That's really cool, Sam."

Sam finished her email, read it over once silently, translated it aloud in English to the others, then copied and pasted it into the email as a reply and sent it back to Anzu.

"How long do you think it will take her to respond?" Tucker wanted to know.

Sam shrugged. "It's been hours since she first sent this, so it's not like she's been sitting next to a computer waiting for a response. She's probably out sightseeing with her friends or something."

Danny stepped out of his bedroom to the bathroom for a few minutes to answer the call of nature and was surprised when he returned to hear that Anzu had just replied. "Already? Wow. Heh, guess she was waiting by the computer for you after all."

Sam rolled her eyes at him. "They haven't left the hotel room yet. They got in early this morning and pretty much crashed until just a little while ago. She's asking if I can get on IM."

"Go for it."

He settled on the bed half-beside, half-behind her again as she sent a reply email, then signed into her IM and typed in English.

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Hey! Here when you are._

It took several minutes before Anzu's screen name went active and a reply posted.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Hi! Wow, neither of us is up at some cruel hour to talk. Imagine that._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Yeah, imagine. So . . . you guys are in the neighborhood, huh? What's going on? You said you're stateside for business or something?_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Um . . . or something. It's kind of hard to explain. I've told you about our friend, Kaiba? We're here with him. He's got business here and in Chicago to maybe build a KaibaLand somewhere in the neighborhood. We're here because we were helping with some other stuff . . . but he's going to be in meetings now for the next several days, which leaves the rest of us free._

Sam startled at Anzu's reply. "Kaiba? She's here with Kaiba?"

Danny looked at her. "He's . . . _not_ a friend of theirs?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Not if he's who I think he is." She shifted to look up at Jazz. "He's the guy who put on that press conference last week after the first tulpa attack, when all those monsters showed up all over the world. Remember?" Jazz nodded thoughtfully, and Sam turned back to Danny. "From what Anzu's told me, Kaiba's cold and insulting and-" She huffed to stop herself. "Kaiba taking Anzu and her friends on a business trip would be like Dash suddenly getting all chummy with you and taking you under wing to teach you to play football."

Tucker grimaced. "With or without a hidden agenda to just grind Danny's face into the turf and laugh at him?"

Sam shook her head and turned back to her laptop.

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ You're here with Kaiba? Since when did he start talking to you enough to let you travel with him?_

There was a brief pause before Anzu answered.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Since Yugi started working for him. Recent development, long story... [_"Yeah, I'll _bet_ it's a long story," Sam murmured as they read._] Anyway, Kaiba needed Yugi along, and Yugi asked me and Honda and Jou to come too. Kaiba went ahead and let us._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Oh . . . well, that's cool, though! So, when do you think you might be in Amity Park, then? I can suggest some really nice hotels depending on your price range. _

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Well, money's not really an issue – Yugi has a company credit card that the whole trip is going on, so . . . wherever you think would be best, I guess._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ In that case, there's the Garnier Hotel. It overlooks the shore of Lake Michigan – great view! I can look up the address and get you their phone number so you can Google directions and call for a reservation. When do you guys think you might be in the neighborhood?_

There was another pause, much longer this time, before Anzu replied, and Danny guessed she was discussing it with her friends.

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Sounds like we can be in there in time for dinner. Maybe we can meet you guys somewhere?_

"The Nasty Burger?" Tucker suggested.

Danny stifled a laugh as Sam typed, thinking how the others would probably react to the name.

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Sure! There's a place just a few blocks from there, a restaurant called The Nasty Burger. Yeah, I know, weird name for a burger joint – I hear it _used _to be The Tasty Burger when it first opened, but someone changed a letter and the name just stuck. But it really is a great place. They serve all kinds of stuff – including really good vegan fare if any of your friends are vegetarians._

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Sure, that sounds great. How about I call you when we get to our hotel, and we can arrange a time, then?_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Yeah, that'll work. I'll be bringing some friends, if that's okay? Danny, Tucker, and Danny's sister Jazz._

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Heh, why not? I'm bringing four myself._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Four? Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda…?_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ And Raphael. He's a friend of ours who we've just met since getting to America. He's been traveling with us, helping us out, and he's gonna play taxi driver, so…_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Gotcha. Don't want to leave anyone out, right? Anyway . . . well, cool! Sounds like we'll be seeing each other in just a few hours then! I can't wait!_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Neither can I! My friends and I have really been needing a vacation, so we're all really excited. Well, I guess I should go so we can check out and get on our way. We have a few stops we need to make before we get on the road._

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ No problem. My friends and I have some things we need to do too. I'll have my cell phone on me, and I already emailed you my number so . . . Talk to you later?_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Yeah. In person, even! I can't wait! Later!_

_**PhntmGoth13:**__ Jaa mata, Anzu-chan!_

_**DreamzOfDncing:**__ Jaa ato de, Sam-chan!_

_**DreamzOfDncing has signed out.**_

* * *

Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!

BACKSTAGE ACCESS: Inspired by Scribbler's "Side-Flings, Homages, and Downright Rip-Offs" that she includes at the end of many of her stories, and by my own love of knowing what goes on behind the scenes, how something was done, or what inspired something.

1. _"These, son, are the Fenton Anti-Invisibility Ecto-Brain-Buckets."_

I have to give a tip-of-the-hat to part of the name of the invention. XD "Brain bucket" is the nickname for combat helmets in the real-life RPG, "Galaxy 7" or "G7," that Jack and Maddie mentioned playing in college. The game isn't a published one (yet) but one that several friends of mine first created and started playing when they were all stationed in Japan some 20+ years ago with the Navy and Marines. It's a space-based game. Ever seen the movie "The Fifth Element"? That could have been a G7 run . . . complete with insanity and property destruction! LOL I've played with the gang . . . and things can get crazy! It's _fun_, though. So I had to throw in the game since I was using a reference from it . . . and I knew exactly what Jack would name his helmets as soon as I thought of them! XDDD

2. _In that case, there's the Garnier Hotel._

Meant to mention in the last chapter… Ripped with permission from MyAibou. In her _awesome_ DP fic, _Ghosts in the Closet_, she has this to say about the name of the hotel she had their senior prom held in – "The Garnier Hotel is named after Le Palais Garnier, also known as the Paris Opera House, which is, of course, the setting for _Phantom of the Opera_."


End file.
